Well, it’s that time of the year, November, and if you are Mexican that only means one thing, Día de Muertos (Day of the dead) has arrived, the date to remember those who have passed away and which it is believed that our relatives come to visit us just for one night. The night of November 1st and dawn of November 2nd, there is something that we all, alive and dead (I think so) are waiting for, it is Pan de Muerto.
It is an important element in altars, such as cempasuchil flower , chocolate skulls or a photo of our relatives, this bread is an offering so they can enjoy it at the end of the long way they have traveled among some of their favourite food and drink, but we also like to eat it during October and November, though some bakeries and supermarkets begin to sell it in August for those that can’t wait anymore to taste this delicious bread.
Origin
Let’s go back in time a little bit, approximately 500 years back, when the Spanish conquest was taking place, in that time Aztecs had rituals with human sacrifices,in which a priest used obsidian blades to take out the heart and offer it to their gods, the heart was put in a pot with amaranth and finally bitten by the priest, yep… as you can imagine this was seen as a tradition that needed to be changed, so, it evolved into a heart shaped bread covered with sugar and painted red.
There are about 750 types of Pan de Muerto, some of them have donut, animals or human shapes or even look like fantastic creatures, but for now I will focus in the traditional one, It is round shaped to symbolize the life cycle, it has four dough sticks that represent bones and the cardinal directions and finally half a sphere on the top, which represents a skull.
As you can see it is covered in sugar and most of the time it has orange flavour. There are many sizes, most of them have 4 “bones” but if you buy a large one it can have a lot more. Pan de Muerto is usually eaten with hot chocolate to drink, but lately mexicans have been really creative in terms of flavours, appearance and even combining it with other foods, here are some examples:
Have you tried it? If you have, don’t forget to share your favourite place on Maps to buy it!
¡Feliz Día de Muertos! 
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