Would you like a sweet treat on Mexican Day of the Dead?…

MEXICO CITY (AP) – The first bite is an assault on the senses. A sweet, lemony, fluffy delight.

“Pan de muerto”, or “bread of the dead”, is baked in Mexico every year, from early October to mid-November, among Day of the Dead celebrations.

Shaped like a roll, decorated with bone-like pieces of bread and sugar on top, pan de muerto can be seen in cafes, dinner tables or home altars, that Mexicans build to commemorate their dead loved ones and welcome them back for the night of November 2.

The date of its creation cannot be determined, but pan de muerto can be considered a combination of Mesoamerican and Spanish traditions, said Andrés Medina, a researcher at the Institute of Anthropological Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

For centuries, Mexicans have remembered the dead through celebrations and food

Since pre-Hispanic times, there have been celebrations to honor the dead and skull-shaped products have been made. However, in the 16th century, when the Spanish arrived, new items were added to the native offerings, such as sugar and bread.

Medina stated that these early celebrations coincided with the harvest season, which gives pan de muerto spiritual and symbolic meaning. If its decorations resemble bones, it is because the Mesoamerican worldview considered them to be the source of life.

According to an ancient myth, Quetzalcóatl created humanity from bones. Details vary depending on the source, but shortly after the god apparently stole it from the underworld, he fell. And from his blood the seed of life was born.

“According to this worldview, the bones of the human body, like the inside of a fruit, are seeds,” Medina said. “In a sense, altars are offerings of fertility. And the Day of the Dead is a celebration of the life contained in each seed.”

The shape, ingredients, and preparations of Pan de Muerto vary by Mexican state, but are enjoyed throughout the country.

100 and counting: one man’s expedition to try all the varieties of “pan de muerto”

In Mexico, hundreds of bakeries make their own version. Rodrigo Delgado has spent years trying to try them all.

For fun, he challenges himself to try as many as he can and review them further his Instagram account. Ten years ago, on his first trip, he tasted 15. In 2023, he bit 100. This year, he expects to taste at least 110.

“I like pan de muerto because of its significance during the Day of the Dead period,” said Delgado, who also reviews local restaurants on his blog, Godínez for gourmets. “The bread’s mix of flavors, like its texture, is very soothing.”

He doesn’t remember the first time he tried pan de muerto, but he treasures the memories of his mother baking it at home. He said he and his brother kneaded the dough and formed bone-like decorations on top.

Baking a pan de muerto is not an easy task. On Panadería Dos Veintein Mexico City’s San Rafael neighborhood, owner Manu Tovar said it takes three days of work to prepare these sweet rolls for sale: one to extract the infusions that add flavor to the bread, another to add them to the dough, and another day to knead and shape the rolls .

There is no mystery to his recipe, Tovar said. The ingredients – although seasonal – are simple: orange blossom, tangerine peel, anise and butter.

His special touch that makes his bread unique is the leaven. “It’s an ancestral process,” Tovar said. “A thousand-year-old way of baking bread.”

The sourdough starter he and his four helpers use is 20 years old. Every day he adds water and flour to keep it alive and mixes some of it with new dough. This makes the bread taste better, he said, and is easier to digest.

The seasonal flavors of Pan de Muertos make it unique

For years, Tovar says, he resisted the temptation to bake a cake in a pan de muerto in early October. The quality of ingredients improves as November approaches, but customers asked when the rolls would be ready, so he relented.

This season, in addition to baking 90 pan de muertos a day, he came up with two new creations: a croissant roll filled with marigold cream and a roll – locally called a “concha” – in the shape of a marigold flower, made with tangerine instead of vanilla or chocolate.

“If you bake it the traditional way, you can only eat pan de muerto because that’s when the fruit is available,” Tovar said. “I think that’s what makes this dish so special.”

He added that the atmosphere during the Day of the Dead also plays a role. At this time of year, darkness falls and there is a certain mysticism, a special feeling in the air.

“It probably has to do with the melancholy about the meaning of the holiday,” he said. “For one day a year you can feel closer to those who are no longer with you.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the AP cooperation from The Conversation US, with financial support from Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.