Care for a sweet treat during Mexico's Day of the Dead? Have a bite of 'pan de muerto'

MEXICO CITY — The first bite is an assault to the senses. A sugary, citric, fluffy delight.

“Pan de muerto” or “bread of the dead” is baked in Mexico every year, from early October to mid-November, amid Day of the Dead celebrations.

Shaped like a bun, decorated with bone-like bread pieces and sugar on top, pan de muerto can be seen at coffee shops, dinner tables or home-made altars, which Mexicans build to remember their deceased loved ones and welcome them back for a night on Nov. 2.

Its date of origin can’t be specified, but pan de muerto can be thought of as a fusion of Mesoamerican and Spanish traditions, said Andrés Medina, a researcher at the Anthropological Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Mexicans have remembered the dead with festivities and food for centuries

Since pre-Hispanic times, festivities for the dead have existed and skull-shaped products have been made. But in the 1500s, when the Spaniards arrived, new elements such as sugar and bread were incorporated into Indigenous offerings.

Those early celebrations, Medina said, coincided with the crop season, which provides pan de muerto a spiritual, symbolic meaning. If its decorations resemble bones, it’s because Mesoamerican worldviews regarded them as the origin of life.

According to an ancient myth, Quetzalcóatl created humankind out of bones. Details vary from one source to another, but soon after the god apparently stole them from the underworld, he fell. And from his blood, the seed of life was born.

“Under this worldview, the human body’s bones, just like the fruit’s insides, are seeds,” Medina said. “So, in a way, altars are offerings to fertility. And Day of the Dead is a celebration of the life contained in each seed.”

Pan de muerto’s shape, ingredients and preparations differ from one Mexican state to another, but is enjoyed all over the country.

100 and counting: One man’s quest to try every variation of “pan de muerto”

In Mexico City, hundreds of bakeries make their own version. Rodrigo Delgado has spent years trying to taste them all.

For fun, he challenges himself to try as many as possible and review them on his Instagram account. On his first quest, a decade ago, he tried 15. In 2023, he had a bite of 100. This year, he expects to taste at least 110.

“I like pan de muerto because of what it means during Day of the Dead season,” said Delgado, who also reviews local restaurants on his blog, Godínez Gourmet. “The mix of flavors of the bread, as much as its texture, are very comforting.”

He can’t remember the first time he tried pan de muerto, but he treasures the memories of his mother baking it at home. He and his brother used to knead the dough, he said, and shape the bone-like decorations of its top.

Baking pan de muerto is not an easy task. At Panadería Dos Veinte, in Mexico City's San Rafael neighborhood, owner Manu Tovar said that having these sweet buns ready for sale takes three days of work: one to extract the infusions that will provide the bread with its flavor, another to incorporate them into the dough and one more day to knead and shape the buns.

There’s no secret in his recipe, Tovar said. The ingredients — although seasonal — are simple: orange blossom, tangerine zest, anise and butter.

His special touch, what makes his bread unique, is the sourdough. “It’s an ancestral process,” Tovar said. “A millenary way to make bread.”

The sourdough that he and four assistants use is 20 years old. He incorporates water and flour daily, to keep it alive, and mixes part of it with new dough. This gives the bread a better taste, he said, and makes it easier to digest.

Pan de muertos' seasonal flavors help make it special

For years, said Tovar, he resisted the temptation of baking pan de muerto in early October. The quality of the ingredients improves as November gets closer, but customers kept asking when the buns would be ready, so he caved.

This season, aside from baking 90 pan de muertos per day, he came up with two new creations: a croissant roll filled with marigold cream and a bun — locally known as “concha” — shaped like a marigold flower and prepared with tangerine instead of vanilla or chocolate.

“If you bake it in a traditional way, you can only have pan de muerto now, because that’s when the fruit is available," Tovar said. "That’s what I think makes it so special.”

The ambience of the Day of the Dead season, he added, also plays a role. Nightfall comes earlier during this time of year and there’s certain mysticism, a particular feeling in the air.

“It probably has to do with the melancholy of what this festivity means,” he said. “For one day a year, you can feel closer to those who are no longer with you.”

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