Pastry chef Michelle Lunde makes Day of the Dead bread at her cafe Delicate Decadence in Barre, pictured here with imported Mexican figures from Sur Al Norte in Montpelier. Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

Patrick Timothy Mullikin

At first blush this may seem just a little too creepy: a round loaf of bread topped with crossed bones. Sometimes it's even baked in the shape of a skull. But it's always part of a homemade altar and is often brought to the cemetery as an offering to dead relatives on Nov. 2.

To New Englanders it might sound like something from Stephen King. But throughout Mexico, bakeries work overtime to pump out these sacred loaves. Here in Vermont the demand for pan de muerto, "bread of the dead," is not yet quite so established. Yet at least one Vermonter has more than a passing interest in this bread.

Despite its morbid name, pan de muerto, is a light, sweet, eggy bread similar to Jewish challah. The two breads may in fact have an ancestral link by way of Spanish Jews, says Montpelier's Emily Pena Murphey. (A quick, but necessary, history lesson: In 1519 the Spaniard Hernan Cortez and his fellow conquistadors, fresh on the heels of the Spanish Inquisition, introduced Christianity to Montezuma's human-sacrifice-loving Aztec Empire. In just two years, the highly advanced and centuries-old Aztec civilization and culture were wiped out in one fell Spanish swoop. This is why Anglo tourists returning from Mexico refer to their dysentery as "Montezuma's Revenge.")

"The more I read about Mexican preconquest history, the more I see how human sacrifice was practiced. … It was a big thing," Murphey says. "Then there was the Spanish conquest; the Spanish were pretty bloodthirsty, too."

This may explain the Mexican's obsession with things skeletal.

The Day of The Dead, "Día de Muertos," combines two distinct cultures and is the Catholic Church-sanctioned merging of two Christian holidays: All Saints Day, on Nov. 1, and All Souls Day, on Nov. 2. During this time of celebration in Mexico, mountains of sugar skulls grin from marketplace stalls, and bakery windows are brimming with skull-and-crossbone-festooned loaves.

Murphey, who is of Mexican/Irish descent, has celebrated The Day of The Dead at her Montpelier home for the past 16 years. Each year she erects a special altar, also called an offrena (offering) to honor her dead relatives. Pan de muerto — along with flowers, chocolate and fruit — is one of the core components of hers and of all offrendas erected during the time.

"Basically the idea is that this is a time when the dead can interact with the living. It gives them an opportunity to enjoy the things they enjoyed during life. That's why it's important to have an offering of all their favorite things and why it is important to have a celebration where every body has a good time."

Murphey says that in colonial Mexico, during the Day of the Dead, people would bring the bones of their ancestors home from the cemetery and put them underneath the table while they were having their dinner.

Although the bread is not difficult to bake, and the ingredients easily obtained, most Mexicans tend buy their pan de muerto loaves from a local bakery, Murphey says.

In Vermont, finding a bakery that specializes in pan de muerto may be tricky, so baking it at home should be considered an option.

While technically not a bakery, Barre's new Delicate Decadence, a pastry shop and café, has prepared a few loaves for the Day of the Dead. Owner and pastry chef Michelle Lunde agrees pan de muerto is similar to challah. She says she favors anything that brings family together. "Part of that is sitting down and eating food." And on the Day of The Dead, remembering deceased family members.

Lunde's recipe for pan de muerto

(Makes 8 to 10 servings.)

Ingredients

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, cut into 8 pieces

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 package active dry yeast

1/4 cup very warm water

2 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted

1/2 tsp. anise seed

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. sugar



Instructions:

Bring milk to boil and remove from heat. Stir in butter, one-fourth cup sugar and salt.

In large bowl, mix yeast with warm water until dissolved and let stand five minutes. Add milk mixture. Separate the yolk and white of one egg. Add the yolk to the yeast mixture, but save the white for later. Add flour to the yeast and egg. Blend well until dough ball is formed.

Flour a pastry board or work surface very well and place the dough in center. Knead until smooth. Return to large bowl and cover with dish towel. Let rise in warm place for 90 minutes. Meanwhile, grease a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Knead dough again on floured surface. Divide the dough into fourths and set one-fourth aside. Roll the remaining three pieces into "ropes."

On greased baking sheet, pinch three rope ends together and braid. Finish by pinching ends together on opposite side. Divide the remaining dough in half and form two "bones." Cross and lay them atop braided loaf.

Cover bread with dish towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix anise seed, cinnamon and 2 teaspoons sugar together. In another bowl, beat egg white lightly.

When 30 minutes are up, brush top of bread with egg white and sprinkle with sugar mixture, except on cross bones. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.



Patrick Timothy Mullikin writes regularly for Vermont Sunday Magazine.