Pan de Muerto de Monito Potosino

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy sheet pans or charolas
• •Stand mixer with dough hook or a wide wooden board for hand kneading
• •Bench scraper or clean kitchen scissors for shaping arms and legs
• •Rolling pin and small oval cutter for the sugar faces
• •Pastry brush
• •Parchment paper

Instructions

1. 1

   Infuse the milk

   Combine the milk, anise seed, and Mexican cinnamon in a small saucepan. Warm it until small bubbles gather at the edge, then turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit for 10 minutes. Strain and cool until warm to the touch. The anise belongs in the milk because it spreads through the dough cleanly. Dumping dry anise into flour gives you bitter little pockets. Ask the women at the market. They know.

2. 2

   Wake the yeast

   Stir the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar into the warm infused milk. Let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes, until foamy on top. If nothing happens, start again with fresh yeast. Dead yeast will not resurrect because you ask nicely.

3. 3

   Start the dough

   In a large bowl, whisk the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and orange zest. Add the eggs, orange blossom water, and the foamy yeast milk. Mix until a shaggy dough forms, then rest it for 10 minutes. That pause lets the flour drink before you start judging the texture.

4. 4

   Work in lard

   Knead by hand for 8 to 10 minutes, or in a stand mixer with the dough hook for about 6 minutes. Add the soft lard one tablespoon at a time, waiting until each addition disappears into the dough before adding the next. The dough will look slick, then stubborn, then suddenly smooth and elastic. It should be soft and slightly tacky, not dry. Manteca de cerdo gives this bread its tender pull. Vegetable shortening makes it whiter and poorer in flavor.

   Do not bury the dough in flour because it sticks for the first few minutes. Enriched dough tightens as the fat works in. Patience is cheaper than ruining the crumb.
5. 5

   Let it rise

   Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let it rise in a warm spot until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Press the dough with one finger. If the dent fills slowly, it is ready. If it springs back fast, give it more time. No me vengas con atajos.

6. 6

   Make sugar faces

   While the dough rises, stir the powdered sugar and meringue powder in a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon water and the lime juice, then mix into a stiff sugar paste, adding drops of water only if it crumbles. Tint it pale pink or leave it white. Roll it 1/8 inch thick and cut 10 small ovals for faces. Let them dry on parchment. Mix the cocoa powder with 1 teaspoon water to make a dark paste for eyes and mouths.

   Meringue powder keeps the sugar paste safer and more stable than raw egg white. Panaderías use food color for these faces. That is not a scandal, that is Tuesday before Día de Muertos.
7. 7

   Shape the monitos

   Line two sheet pans with parchment. Deflate the dough and divide it into 10 equal pieces, about 85 to 90 grams each if you have a scale. From each piece, pinch off a small ball for the head. Shape the larger piece into a short oval body, then pinch or snip two arms and two legs with a bench scraper or scissors. Attach the head with a dab of egg wash and press gently at the neck. These are monitos, little human figures. If you make round buns with crossed bones, you made the Mexico City style, not this Potosino bread. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

8. 8

   Proof and wash

   Cover the shaped monitos loosely and let them rise 45 to 60 minutes, until puffy but still holding their arms and legs. Heat the oven to 350F. Brush each figure lightly with egg wash, avoiding puddles around the neck and cuts. Too much wash glues the shape together and the little body disappears.

9. 9

   Bake the bread

   Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the monitos are golden brown with darker edges at the hands, feet, and head. The bottoms should sound hollow when tapped and the bread should feel light for its size. A wood-fired horno de bóveda gives more uneven color than a home oven. That is not a defect. That is bread with a place.

10. 10

    Sugar and decorate

    Stir the finishing sugar with the ground Mexican cinnamon. Brush the warm breads with melted lard, then sprinkle or roll the bodies lightly in the cinnamon sugar. Use a small dab of sugar paste or thick icing to attach one sugar face to each head. Paint the eyes and mouth with the cocoa paste using a toothpick. Let the faces set for 20 minutes before moving the breads to the ofrenda or serving them with cafe de olla. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •This is not the round pan de muerto with bones from Ciudad de México. If you want that bread, make that bread. If you want monito potosino, shape the little body and give it a sugar face. Así se hace y punto.
• •Use rendered pork lard from a butcher or a Mexican market, not hydrogenated shortening if you can avoid it. Some commercial panaderías use shortening now because it is cheap and stable. That is a business decision, not better flavor.
• •There are no chiles in this bread. A dish can be deeply Mexican without heat. People who think Mexican food is only chile have not been paying attention.
• •If the dough feels sticky after the lard goes in, keep kneading before you add flour. Too much flour makes a dry monito, and a dry pan de muerto on the ofrenda is a sad piece of work.
• •The sugar faces can be white, pink, or lightly tinted. Do not overdecorate them into cartoons. A few eyes and a mouth are enough. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

Advance Preparation

• •The sugar faces can be made up to 2 days ahead. Keep them dry between sheets of parchment in a covered tin. Humidity softens them.
• •The dough can rise overnight in the refrigerator after kneading. Cover it tightly, chill, then let it sit at room temperature for 45 minutes before shaping.
• •Baked monitos keep well for 2 days in a covered container. Decorate the faces the day you plan to place them on the ofrenda so the sugar stays clean.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 125g)