Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead)

// SUPPLY LIST

// OPERATIONS

1. 1 Make the sponge (esponja): warm the 80 ml milk to 35°C/95°F — finger-warm, and never above 50°C/122°F, which kills yeast — then whisk in the 7 g instant yeast and the 80 g of sponge flour to a thick, smooth paste the consistency of stiff porridge. Cover and leave at room temperature (22-24°C/72-75°F) for 20-30 minutes, until it has domed and the surface is broken with bubbles like wet sand at low tide. If it has not visibly risen, the yeast is dead; start again rather than push on, because this dough is too heavy with egg and butter to recover from weak yeast.
2. 2 In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, whisk together the 420 g flour, 110 g sugar, 8 g salt, crushed anise and the orange zest, first rubbing the zest into the sugar with your fingers for 30 seconds until the sugar is damp and smells strongly of orange — that releases the oils, and zest stirred in dry stays flat and papery. Add the sponge, the 4 whole eggs, the 2 yolks and the 2 tbsp orange-blossom water. Do not substitute vanilla or orange extract for the agua de azahar — it is the single flavour that makes the bread recognisable as pan de muerto, and without it you have simply baked a brioche.
3. 3 Mix on low speed for 2-3 minutes to a shaggy, sticky mass, then raise to medium-low and knead 8-10 minutes until the dough climbs the hook, cleans the sides of the bowl and looks smooth and satiny. By hand, use slap-and-fold on an unfloured worktop for 15-20 minutes; the dough will be slack and tacky for the first 10 minutes and you must resist adding flour, or the finished crumb turns tight and dry.
4. 4 With the mixer on medium-low, add the 170 g cubed butter one or two cubes at a time over 5-6 minutes, waiting until each addition disappears before adding more, then beat a further 8-10 minutes until the dough is glossy, pulls cleanly from the bowl and stretches into a windowpane you can see light through without tearing. The butter must be pliable at 18-20°C/64-68°F, not melted — melted butter coats the gluten instead of being worked into it, and the loaf bakes squat and greasy. If the dough climbs into a warm, soupy mess before the butter is all in, chill the whole bowl for 15 minutes and carry on.
5. 5 Scrape the dough into a lightly buttered bowl, cover, and let it rise at 24°C/75°F for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until doubled, domed and wobbling like set custard when you shake the bowl. Then refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 16 (overnight is what most home bakers do, and it improves the flavour): a 1.1 kg mass of enriched dough takes hours to chill through, and a dough still warm in the middle cannot be shaped into bones that hold their ridges.
6. 6 Turn the cold dough onto a lightly floured surface and weigh it — you should have about 1.1 kg. Cut off 240 g for the decoration and return it to the fridge, then divide the rest into two equal pieces of roughly 430 g. Shape each into a tight boule by cupping your hand over it and dragging it in circles against the worktop until the surface is taut and slightly resistant, and set them at least 10 cm apart on a heavy baking sheet lined with parchment.
7. 7 Take the reserved 240 g and divide it into two 20 g balls for the crowns and eight pieces of about 25 g for the bones. Roll each bone piece into a rope 12-14 cm long — long enough to run from the crown down to the base of the loaf, no further — rolling with your fingers splayed wide and pressing down harder at three evenly spaced points, so the rope pinches into knuckles with swollen sections between them. That ridged shape is the whole point, and a smooth rope reads as a breadstick. Keep the pieces you are not shaping in the fridge so they stay firm enough to hold the knuckles.
8. 8 Brush a cross of beaten egg over each boule, then lay four bones over the loaf at twelve, three, six and nine o'clock, meeting at the top and pressed firmly against the worktop at the base. Lay them slightly slack rather than stretched tight — the loaf grows by half again during proving, and taut bones tear away from the sides. Press a thumb into the centre to make a shallow hollow, dab it with egg and seat a 20 g ball in it.
9. 9 Cover the loaves loosely with oiled cling film and prove at 24°C/75°F for 2 to 3 hours, until increased by about half and a floured fingertip pressed 1 cm into the side springs back slowly, leaving a shallow dent. Fridge-cold dough sits still for the first 45 minutes or so — judge by the dough, not the clock, and do not let it double: over-proved pan de muerto collapses around the crown in the oven and the bones sink into the loaf. About 30 minutes before baking, heat the oven to 180°C/350°F (fan 160°C/320°F) with a rack in the middle.
10. 10 Bake for 28-32 minutes, until the loaves are an even deep golden brown, the bones are set and matte, and a probe pushed into the thickest part of the base loaf reads 90°C/194°F. If the tops are colouring hard before the 20 minute mark, tent loosely with foil. Underbaking is the classic failure with a dough this rich — at 82°C/180°F the centre is still gummy and tastes raw, and the loaf will feel heavy in the hand rather than surprisingly light.
11. 11 Cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes, until warm but no longer hot to the palm, then brush all over with the 60 g melted butter — sides, under the bones, everywhere — and roll and press each loaf in a wide plate of the 100 g granulated sugar. Timing matters: sugar on a hot loaf dissolves into syrup and slides off, and sugar on a cold loaf simply falls away.
12. 12 Rest at least another 30 minutes before cutting so the crumb sets, then serve the same day, torn by hand into wedges rather than sliced, with hot chocolate frothed with a molinillo, champurrado or café de olla for dunking. It is at its best on day one and stales quickly; day-two bread is dunked in chocolate or atole, or turned into budín de pan or torrejas. A whole loaf is also what goes on the ofrenda, so bake two and put the better-looking one out for the dead.

// CLASSIFICATIONS