Pan de Muerto Oaxaqueño con Cabecita

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal for toasting anise seed
• •Wooden artesa or large wooden kneading board
• •Volcanic stone molcajete for crushing the anise
• •Large cotton servilleta for covering the dough during the rise
• •Two heavy baking sheets lined with parchment
• •Small natural-bristle brush for painting the cabecita
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Shape the cabecitas first

   Two days before you bake, you make the cabecitas. Not the morning of. Not the night before. Two days. Mix 1 cup of the flour, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoons of the lard, and enough water to bring it together into a stiff, dry dough. Pinch off pieces the size of a walnut and shape each one into a small head: round skull, pinched nose, two thumbprint eye sockets, a slit for the mouth. Set them on a clean cloth on a tray and leave them, uncovered, in a dry corner of the kitchen for two days. They will harden and dry. This is the panadera tradition from Mitla and Zaachila and Tlacolula. The cabecita has to be dry going onto the bread, otherwise it cracks in the oven and the soul cracks with it.

   The cabecita is not a substitute for the bone shape. The bone shape is Mexico City pan de muerto. The cabecita is Oaxaca. They are different breads from different traditions. Do not mix them.
2. 2

   Build the pulque sponge

   In a wide bowl, whisk the pulque fresco with the 1/2 cup of flour for the sponge until smooth. Cover with a cloth and leave it on the counter for 4 to 6 hours, until it foams, doubles, and smells sour and bright. Pulque is the leavener. It is not a substitute for yeast, it is the leavener. The wild yeasts in pulque give pan de yema a tang and a slow, deep rise that commercial yeast cannot replicate. If you truly cannot find pulque, the milk-and-yeast substitute will give you bread, but it will not give you Oaxacan pan de yema.

   Pulque has to be fresh, the kind sold the same day from a pulqueria or a small pulque vendor. Pulque in cans or bottles has been pasteurized and the yeasts are dead. Dead pulque does not leaven anything.
3. 3

   Toast the anise and prepare the dry ingredients

   Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Toast the anise seeds for about a minute, shaking the pan, until they turn fragrant. Do not let them brown. Crush them lightly in a molcajete to wake the oils. In a large bowl, combine the 5 cups of flour, sugar, salt, toasted anise, and orange zest. Whisk to distribute everything evenly.

4. 4

   Build the dough

   Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in the foamy pulque sponge, then add the 8 egg yolks and the 2 whole eggs. Mix with your hands or with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms. Now add the softened manteca and butter in pieces. Work them in slowly. The dough will look broken and greasy at first. Keep going. After about ten minutes of kneading, the lard surrenders and the dough turns golden, soft, and elastic. This is pan de yema. The yolks and the manteca together are what give it that yellow crumb and that tender, slightly cakey bite that does not exist in any other Mexican bread.

5. 5

   Knead until satin

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured wooden surface. Knead for 12 to 15 minutes. Push it away from you with the heel of your hand, fold it back, turn a quarter, repeat. The dough is enriched and slack: it will fight you. Resist the urge to add more flour. Too much flour and your bread is dry. The dough is ready when it pulls away from the table cleanly and a small piece stretched between your fingers turns translucent without tearing.

6. 6

   First rise

   Place the dough in a clean, lightly greased bowl, cover with a cotton servilleta, and leave to rise in a warm corner of the kitchen for 3 to 4 hours, until doubled. Pulque is slower than commercial yeast. Do not rush it. The slow rise is what builds the flavor. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.

7. 7

   Shape the panes

   Punch the dough down gently and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth, taut ball, tucking the seam underneath. Set the balls on parchment-lined baking sheets, four per sheet, leaving space between them. With your fingertips, press a small dimple into the top of each ball, deep enough to seat the cabecita firmly when the time comes.

8. 8

   Second rise

   Cover the shaped panes loosely with a cotton cloth and let them rise for 2 hours, until they have grown by half and feel pillowy when you press a finger gently against the side. The dough should spring back slowly, leaving a faint mark.

9. 9

   Paint the cabecitas

   While the panes finish rising, paint the dried cabecitas. The face is painted red with grana de cochinilla, the cochineal red that Oaxaca has dyed wool and bread with for centuries. Use a small brush. Paint the whole face red. Then paint the eye sockets and the mouth dark with the añil or cocoa wash. Press a few sesame seeds into the crown of the head. The cabecita is the returning soul, dressed for the ofrenda. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only if you treat the cabecita with the respect it is owed.

10. 10

    Bake

    Heat the oven to 350F. Brush each pan gently with the egg wash. Press a painted cabecita into the dimple at the top of each pan, seating it firmly so it does not slide off as the bread rises. Bake for 28 to 35 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through, until the panes are deeply golden and the bottoms sound hollow when tapped. The cabecitas will set hard and the painted face will hold its color through the heat. If the tops are browning too fast, tent loosely with foil for the last ten minutes.

11. 11

    Cool and place on the ofrenda

    Cool the panes on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before you touch them. Pan de yema oaxaqueño is an everyday bread in Oaxaca: pan de muerto is its November dress. Place them on the ofrenda with a jícara of chocolate de agua, the way it is done in Mitla and Tlacolula. The bread feeds the living and signals the dead. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Find a pulquería that sells the same day's pulque. Canned and bottled pulque is pasteurized, which kills the yeasts that do all the work. If you cannot get fresh pulque where you live, the milk-and-yeast substitute will produce a bread, but understand it is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •The cabecita has to be made two days ahead and air-dried. No me vengas con atajos. A wet cabecita cracks in the oven and slides off the bread. The drying is not optional, it is the technique.
• •Manteca de cerdo, the real rendered pork lard, is what gives pan de yema its tender crumb. Vegetable shortening will give you a different bread. Butter alone will give you a different bread. The combination of manteca and a little butter is the Oaxacan way.
• •Pan de yema is everyday bread in Oaxaca. Once you have the recipe, make it without the cabecita any week of the year. It is breakfast bread, chocolate de agua bread, market bread. Día de Muertos is when it puts on its dress.
• •If you cannot find grana de cochinilla, beet powder is the home substitute. It will not be as deep, but it will be red. Do not use red food coloring number 40. The whole point of the painted face is that it is colored with what Oaxacan dyers have always used.

Advance Preparation

• •The cabecitas are made two days before the bread bakes. They must air-dry uncovered on a clean cloth for that full window. Do not skip this.
• •The pulque sponge takes 4 to 6 hours to come alive. Plan your day around it.
• •The shaped panes can be retarded in the refrigerator overnight after the first rise, then brought back to room temperature for the second rise the next day. The flavor deepens. This is how some panaderías in Tlacolula handle the volume of Día de Muertos orders.
• •Pan de muerto keeps for 3 days at room temperature wrapped in a cotton cloth. Stale pan de yema is what you toast for breakfast and dunk in chocolate de agua. It does not go to waste in Oaxaca.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 210g)