bake - September 2016 - PAN34

BREAD AND BAKING

Celebrating
Día de los Muertos
One
of
the
top-selling
holiday periods of the year is fast
approaching for panaderías across
the country on Nov. 2 when Día
de los Muertos arrives. "During those
days, we hire more people because
we have to make more product in
advance," says Jaime Suarez, owner
of Panadería Tres Hermanos #3
in Salinas, California. "We also
decorate the store with posters. It's
one of the biggest days of the year
for us."
Other bakery owners share
similar sentiments about the
tremendous importance of this
November holiday.
Melesio Fernandez of Fernandez
Bakery in San Jose, California,
estimates they will sell 5,000 pan
de muerto breads during Día de los
Muertos. His bakery uses a traditional
Mexican recipe to make pan de muerto
in both small and large sizes. "People
are looking for the traditional breads
during this holiday," he says.
The most familiar symbols
of Día de los Muertos are skulls,
skeletons, angels, animals and faces
of the honored deceased. At Garcia's
Bakery in Sonoma, California, they
make a creative type of bread for

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this holiday that is decorated with
hand-painted decorations of a face.
The decorations are made of flour
and painted by hand prior to baking
for one minute. Miguel Garcia,
the owner of Garcia's Bakery, says
he purchases bags of these special
decorations in advance from
Oaxaca, Mexico, where they are
made, and stores them in a cooler
to preserve them until needed.
Typically, they place one decoration
on the top of a special loaf bread
in a celebration that is customary
to his home state of Oaxaca. "This
is the offering," he says. "This
bread represents celebration of the
honored deceased."
Beyond breads, you can create
colorful displays leading up to Día
de los Muertos by making cutout
cookies decorated with skeletons
or skull designs. Candies molded
or shaped into skeleton heads are
another creative way to feature an
eye-catching product display.
PAN DE MUERTO

Breads that are shaped to
resemble bones (pan de muerto) are the
centerpiece of this holiday, and can
be made using tips from BakeMark

(visit www.yourbakemark.com and
click on Recipes and then Hispanic).
Traditionally, pan de muerto is
prepared with yeast-risen sweet
dough and flavored with orange
emulsion (or orange zest), anise
or ground cinnamon. Pieces of the
dough are shaped into strips, or
"bones," that are layered on top of
the round dough prior to baking.
At Panadería Tres Hermanos
#3, they make a unique flavor of pan
de muerto by adding guayaba blended
with evaporated milk into the dough
before it is baked.
Pan de muerto can be flavored
with a variety of ingredients such
as almond extract, raisins and
cinnamon. Others make the dough
with whole wheat flour and flavor
it with orange juice. For a finishing
touch, the baked bread can be
brushed with melted butter and
granulated sugar. Often, the sugar
is colored.
It is also common to use sesame
seeds instead of sugar for the
topping. Variations to the finished
topping can include a flavorful glaze
that is prepared by combining sugar,
orange juice and orange zest and
boiling the mixture to a glaze.
http://www.yourbakemark.com
bake - September 2016

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