Chiapas Painted Bread of the Dead (Pan Pintado)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl or stand mixer with dough hook
• •Small clean paintbrushes used only for food
• •Parchment-lined baking sheets
• •Clean cotton kitchen cloth
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the yeast

   Pour the lukewarm milk into a small bowl and stir in the yeast with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Let it stand for 8 to 10 minutes, until the surface looks foamy and alive. If nothing happens, your yeast is dead. Do not pretend it will improve in the dough. Start again.

2. 2

   Mix the dough

   In a large bowl, combine the bread flour, remaining sugar, salt, and ground canela. Add the foamy yeast mixture, eggs, vanilla, softened lard, and softened butter. Mix with your hand or a wooden spoon until the dough gathers into a rough, sticky mass. It should feel rich and slightly tacky, not dry like tortilla masa and not loose like cake batter.

3. 3

   Knead until smooth

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured table and knead for 10 to 12 minutes, pushing and folding until it becomes smooth, elastic, and soft. Add flour only by the tablespoon if it sticks badly. Too much flour makes altar bread heavy. The dough should pull away from the table but still feel tender under your palm.

   A stand mixer works here. Use the dough hook on medium-low for 7 to 8 minutes. That is a tool, not a sin. The sin is adding flour until the bread turns tough.
4. 4

   Let it rise

   Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a clean kitchen cloth, and let it rise in a warm spot for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until doubled. Press one floured finger into the dough. If the mark fills slowly, it is ready. If it springs back hard, give it more time. Bread follows its own clock.

5. 5

   Shape the breads

   Punch down the dough and divide it into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into an oval or round loaf, pulling the surface tight and tucking the seam underneath. Set the loaves on parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving space between them. Flatten each one slightly with your palm so there is a good surface for painting.

6. 6

   Proof again

   Cover the shaped breads loosely with a cloth and let them rise for 35 to 45 minutes, until puffed and light. Do not overproof them until they collapse under the brush. The bread should hold its shape and still feel alive when touched.

7. 7

   Make the paints

   Whisk the egg yolk, milk, flour, and sugar until smooth. Divide this mixture among four small cups. Tint each cup with red, green, yellow, and blue food coloring or bakery vegetable color. The texture should be like thin paint, thick enough to mark the bread but loose enough to brush cleanly. This is pan pintado. Paint it with intention.

8. 8

   Paint the loaves

   Use small clean brushes to paint flowers, crosses, leaves, borders, and bright lines on the risen loaves. Work gently so you do not deflate the dough. The colors will soften in the oven, so make them strong before baking. No lo hagas palido. A pale pan pintado looks unfinished.

9. 9

   Bake the bread

   Heat the oven to 350F. Bake the breads for 22 to 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the loaves are golden at the edges and sound hollow when tapped underneath. The painted surface should be set and dry, with the colors still visible against the browned crust.

10. 10

    Finish for altar

    Brush the warm breads lightly with melted manteca de cerdo and sprinkle with a little sugar. Let them cool on a rack before placing them on the altar or serving with atole. Do not bag them while hot or the crust will sweat and the painted designs will dull. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •This bread is from Chiapa de Corzo, not the pan de muerto of Ciudad de Mexico. Do not add orange blossom water and bone-shaped strips and then call it Chiapaneco. You made a different bread.
• •Use manteca de cerdo that smells clean and fresh. Rancid lard ruins sweet bread faster than bad yeast. Ask the women at the market which butcher renders it well. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado.
• •The colors should be bright before baking because the oven mutes them. Traditional panaderias use bakery vegetable colors. Home food coloring works, but use enough to be seen.
• •If you want to serve it properly, put it beside champurrado, atole de granillo, or cafe de olla. This is altar bread and family bread, not a plated dessert with sauce dragged across porcelain.
• •The dough can be shaped into larger loaves, but smaller breads are easier to paint and share. For an altar, eight medium loaves look generous without turning the table into a bakery counter.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be mixed the night before and refrigerated after the first rise. Let it sit at room temperature for 45 minutes before shaping.
• •The breads are best the day they are baked, especially if they are going on an altar. They keep one day wrapped in a clean cloth, then should be toasted and eaten with atole.
• •Do not paint the loaves ahead and refrigerate them overnight. The colors bleed, the surface dries, and the bread loses the clean painted look that gives pan pintado its name.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 125g)