Sourdough Pan de Muerto

This is my favourite sourdough sweet bread. It is a versatile recipe enriched with butter, milk, eggs and a little sugar that can be used in many ways after the dough has completed the first rise. 

I used it for Pan de Muerto or Day of the Dead bread. Pan de Muerto is popular in Mexico at this time of year. The dough can be flavoured with citrus, anise, and cinnamon and the bread can be glazed during or after baking. 

The basic bread shape is decorated with dough shaped like bones or skulls. The "femurs" I moulded rose in the oven making them look more like fingers. 

If you don't have a sourdough starter, any basic yeast bread recipe that includes butter, milk, sugar and eggs would work. There are numerous recipes on sites like AllRecipes.

Sourdough Pan de Muerto

1 cup (190 grams) sourdough starter, recently fed
3 cups (420 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (or orange zest)
1/3 cup milk (83 g or 80 ml)
4 tablespoons butter (57 grams)
1/4 cup sugar (50 grams)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, beaten

1. Place milk in a small saucepan with the butter and heat until the butter melts. Add the sugar, salt and citrus zest, stirring until combined.

2. Beat the eggs until they are frothy. Add eggs to the lukewarm milk mixture and then combine with the sourdough starter in a large bowl.

3. Add the flour gradually, stirring well. Add the last bit of flour with your hands and knead the bread until it is smooth and not sticky. You may need to add a little more flour when kneading the bread. I used 2/3 white bread flour and 1/3 whole wheat flour.

4. Cover dough and allow it to rise overnight or for 8-12 hours. 

Punch the dough down and shape it as desired. I removed a golf-ball-sized piece of dough for the "bones". I divided the rest of the dough into 3 parts, rolling them into 15-inch ropes. I braided the dough ropes and shaped them into a ring on a parchment-lined baking sheet. I used the remaining dough for the decorations.

Cover the dough and let it rise again for a couple of hours.

Bake at 350 F for 40 minutes.

I made a glaze from the juice of one lemon and icing sugar and spooned it on the warm bread, making sure to fill all the nooks and crannies.