Pan de Muerto

No topping paste at all — the bone strips are rolled from the same dough with a knuckled finger, and the scent is in the crumb.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white flour
• 120 g sugar
• 120 g butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 120 ml milk, lukewarm
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 8 g salt
• 2 tablespoons orange flower water
• zest of 2 oranges
• 60 g butter, melted, for brushing
• 100 g caster sugar, for finishing

Method

1. THERE IS NO TOPPING PASTE AT ALL AND THE SCENT IS IN THE CRUMB, which is what separates this from a concha. A concha is a plain enriched bun carrying a flavoured paste on its back; here the flavour -- orange flower water and a lot of orange zest -- is worked into the dough itself, and the outside gets nothing but melted butter and sugar after baking. So the bun is scented all the way through rather than on top, and it is finished soft rather than with anything crisp on it.
2. THE BONE STRIPS ARE ROLLED WITH A KNUCKLED FINGER, which is how they get their shape. A thin rope of the same dough is rolled under one finger held slightly bent, moving along it, so the rope is pinched thin in three or four places and bulges between them. That gives the knobbled bone look without any cutting or moulding. Rolled smooth and laid on, they read as plain strips of dough.
3. THE STRIPS ARE STUCK ON WITH WATER AND PRESSED AT THE ENDS AND THE CENTRE. Dry, they lift away from the dome as the bun proves and bake as separate sticks sitting on a ball. A wet fingertip along the underside and a firm press at each end and where they cross keeps them attached.
4. TWO TABLESPOONS OF ORANGE FLOWER WATER IS A REAL QUANTITY AND MORE WOULD RUIN IT. It is strongly perfumed and the line between fragrant and soapy is narrow. Two tablespoons in five hundred grams of flour is assertive and correct; three is perfume.
5. THE BUTTER AND SUGAR GO ON WHILE IT IS WARM, NOT HOT AND NOT COLD. Brushed with melted butter and rolled in caster sugar about ten minutes out of the oven. Straight from the oven the butter soaks in and the sugar dissolves to a wet glaze; fully cold, neither sticks and most of the sugar falls off.
6. The flour, sugar, yeast, salt, eggs, milk, orange flower water and zest mixed and kneaded 6 MINUTES.
7. The softened butter added in pieces and kneaded 8 to 10 MINUTES more until smooth and elastic.
8. Covered and risen 2 HOURS until doubled.
9. Knocked back. About a fifth of the dough SET ASIDE for the bones.
10. The rest divided into 8 and rolled into tight balls, set well apart on lined trays.
11. The reserved dough rolled into thin ropes. Each rope rolled under a SLIGHTLY BENT FINGER, moving along it, so it pinches thin in 3 or 4 places and bulges between.
12. Two bone strips laid crosswise over each ball, STUCK with a wet fingertip and pressed firmly at the ends and where they cross. A small ball of dough set at the centre.
13. Covered and proved 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES.
14. Baked at 180°C for 20 to 22 MINUTES until deep golden and hollow when tapped.
15. Left 10 MINUTES -- warm, not hot -- then brushed all over with the melted butter.
16. Rolled in the caster sugar while still warm, so it sticks without dissolving.
17. Cooled on a rack. Best the day they are made.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes