Mexican Bread of the Dead

Those previous days leading to the Day of the Dead (November 2^nd) are –as it’s happening with other holidays- expanding until several weeks upfront. When it comes to Halloween, which is just a couple of days before the day of the dead, you can start seeing costumes and all types of “merchandising” around last days of September.

In the Day of the Dead, “papel picado” (a decorative craft made out of paper cut into elaborate designs) or commemorative altars (filled with the things that the deceased loved in life) are placed in the houses and the cemeteries. But several days before that, you can find all over the city the “Bread of the Dead”, a sweet soft bread baked like a bun and decorated with crunchy “bone-shaped phalanges” on top of it. This contrast of sponginess and crunch, the sugar cover-up, and its orange aftertaste, are usually the most recognizable signatures in a classic bread of the dead.

The original recipe includes orange zest, orange juice or “orange blossom water”, and sometimes even anise or cumin seed. By-products of that recipe may add some ingredients like rosemary, chocolate or nuts. Enhance some quality, like the citric flavor with lemon or grapefruit zest, and small pieces of candied orange. Stuffing it with different toppings like sweet cream. Or revisiting the recipe in more original ways, like a popsicle of bread of the dead soaked in chocolate milk.

Last year, some friends and I worked together in a sweet quest: finding the best bread of the dead in Mexico City. Posting in Instagram with the hashtag #enbuscadelmejorpandemuerto2015 , we began to report every version of this tasty bun we could find, adding some tasting notes or directly supporting or banning it from this peculiar race. Close to the day of the dead, we all met bringing our favorites, punctuating them, ending up with a “top 3” list and having the hell of an evening.

2016 is here, day of the dead is around the corner, so jump in and join us in this year's amazing new quest #enbuscadelmejorpandemuerto2016 !