Tabasco Yokot'an Pan de Muerto de Tamulté

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl or stand mixer with dough hook
• •Comal or low gas flame for softening banana leaves
• •Two baking sheets lined with hoja de plátano
• •Pastry brush

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the yeast

   Stir the warm milk, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of the sugar in a small bowl. Let it sit for 10 minutes, until a beige foam rises on top. If nothing happens, your yeast is dead. Start again. Bread does not forgive dead yeast.

2. 2

   Mix the dry base

   In a large bowl, whisk the flour, remaining sugar, salt, canela, and ground anise. The canela should smell warm and clean, not dusty. Buy it in a Mexican market if you can. The hard cassia sticks from the supermarket are not the same thing.

3. 3

   Build the dough

   Make a well in the flour. Add the foamy yeast mixture, eggs, manteca de cerdo, butter, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix with your hand until the dough comes together in a rough, sticky mass. The lard is not decoration. It gives the bread its tender crumb and the altar bread its old flavor. La manteca es el sabor.

4. 4

   Knead until elastic

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured table and knead for 12 to 15 minutes. Push, fold, turn. At first it will stick to your fingers. Do not bury it in flour. Keep kneading until it turns smooth, soft, and elastic, with a light sheen from the fat. A stand mixer with a dough hook works, 8 to 10 minutes on medium-low, but your hands will teach you more.

5. 5

   Let it rise

   Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a clean cloth and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. In Tabasco's humid heat, dough moves quickly. In a cold kitchen, it takes longer. Watch the dough, not the clock.

   If the dough smells strongly sour before it doubles, the room is too hot or you waited too long. Good pan de muerto smells sweet from milk, egg, canela, and yeast.
6. 6

   Prepare the leaves

   Pass the banana leaves quickly over a low gas flame or hot comal until they turn glossy and flexible. Do not burn them. Line two baking sheets with the softened leaves, shiny side up. The hoja de plátano perfumes the bottom of the bread and keeps it from drying against the metal.

7. 7

   Shape the animals

   Punch down the dough and divide it into 12 to 14 pieces. Shape each piece by hand into animals for the altar: turtles with crosshatched shells, birds with pinched beaks, fish with ridged tails, little lizards with four legs. Use small bits of dough for ears, wings, tails, and bones. Press the pieces firmly so they do not detach in the oven. This is not pastry school sculpture. It is altar work, and the hand should show.

8. 8

   Proof the figures

   Arrange the shaped breads on the banana leaves with two inches between them. Cover loosely and let them rise until puffy, 35 to 45 minutes. They should feel alive when you touch them, not heavy and cold. If you overproof them, the animals lose their shape. No me vengas con atajos.

9. 9

   Brush and bake

   Heat the oven to 350F. Beat the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon milk and brush the breads lightly. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown on top and browned underneath where the banana leaf touched the dough. The kitchen should smell of canela, warm fat, and toasted leaf.

10. 10

    Finish with canela

    Stir the finishing sugar with the canela. While the breads are still warm, sprinkle a little over the tops. Do not cover the shapes completely. The animal form matters. Place the breads on the Día de Muertos altar with jícara cups of atole, cacao, fruit, candles, and flowers, then serve the rest at the table. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Use manteca de cerdo. Butter alone makes a softer European-style sweet bread, but it does not give this Tabasco altar bread the same crumb or old flavor. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •If you can find hoja de plátano in a Mexican, Caribbean, or Central American market, use it. Frozen banana leaf works. Rinse it, dry it, and pass it over heat so it becomes flexible.
• •Do not make the animal details too thin. Tiny legs and tails burn before the body bakes. Yokot'an cooks shape with practical hands, not tweezers.
• •Serve with atole, pozol de cacao, or coffee. Do not put frosting, colored sprinkles, or candy eyes on this bread. The altar is not a birthday cake.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be mixed, kneaded, and refrigerated after the first rise for up to 12 hours. Bring it back to room temperature before shaping so the animal figures hold cleanly.
• •The baked breads are best the day they are made. For the altar, they can sit overnight uncovered; for eating, wrap them in a clean cotton servilleta once fully cooled.
• •Leftover bread can be warmed on a comal the next day and served with atole. Do not microwave it into rubber.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 90g)