Dia de Muertos or The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday where families come together to remember their relatives and friends that have passed away. November 1st and 2nd are just around the corner and the traditional Pan de Muertos cannot be missed at your table! Let’s add some sweetness with this delicious, soft bread that's often decorated with bone-shaped phalange pieces.
We are bringing a traditional recipe with a modern twist, using only 100% plant-based ingredients.
Active Preparation Time: 3 hours
Ingredients:
- 500g wheat flour
- ¾ cup of muscovado sugar
- 160ml of water
- ½ cup non-dairy milk of your choice
- 11 to 12 g instant bread yeast
- 90g coconut oil
- 2 tbsp of flaxseed
- 2 tbsp of vegan margarine or butter
- 1 orange (zest and juice)
- Refined frosting sugar
- 1 tsp of salt
Instructions for the Egg Substitute:
Boil 160 ml of water and add 2 tablespoons of flaxseed, letting it boil for 5 minutes. over low heat (while stirring). Then strain the flaxseed, separate the gel from the seeds and let it cool down.
Activation of the yeast:
Heat the milk lightly without having it boil. Transfer the milk to a bowl and add a tablespoon of muscovado sugar and stir. Add the bread yeast and continue mixing until you get a homogeneous mix.
Preparation of the Pan de Muerto Bread:
Wash the orange and grate the peel (do not grate the white part of the orange as it's very bitter!), then cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl.
In a pan, melt coconut oil over low heat. Be careful not to burn it.
Add the flour in a large bowl and make a hole in the center. Pour the yeast, flaxseed gel, melted coconut oil, salt, the rest of the muscovado sugar, orange juice and finally the zest. Mix all the ingredients together then start to knead the dough with your hand. If it's too sticky, add flour gradually until it's slightly moist and sticky. You'll know it's ready when it no longer sticks to your hands. You can introduce a finger in the dough and if returns clean, it means that the dough has a perfect consistency (like a spongy texture).
Add a little coconut oil in a bowl to prevent the dough from sticking. Form a ball with the dough and put it inside the bowl, cover it with a cloth and let it rest for 1 hour, allowing it to grow.
On a flat and clean surface, sprinkle a little flour and start kneading the dough for a couple of minutes in order to eliminate the air from the dough. Form a cylinder shape with the dough and cut it with a knife into 3 pieces to make 3 buns.
Take one piece of the dough, cut a quarter from it to make the decorations of the Pan de Muerto which consists of 3 bone shapes and one small round shape.
For the decorations: from the piece that you just cut, cut it again into 3 smaller pieces. Roll them into 3 cylindrical shapes. Using your 3 fingers in the middle, press down onto the dough to get the shape of the bone. Place them on top of the round-shaped dough you made in step 6. With the leftover dough, make a ball and place it on top of the bones, in the center of the bread. Repeat the same process for the other 2 buns
Sprinkle flour on a baking tray to prevent the buns from sticking. Place your buns on the tray without them being too close to each other because the dough will grow and rise. Cover them with a kitchen cloth. Leave them rest for about 20 minutes.
In the meantime preheat the oven at 180°C.
Bake the buns for 25 minutes. You will know that the Pan de Muerto is ready if you use a toothpick to poke the bowl, and it comes out without a trace of dough. Once ready let them cool down.
Melt butter or margarine in a saucepan and brush them onto the surface of your bread. Dust refined sugar on top. Enjoy your Pan de Muerto with your favorite hot chocolate.
