Bread of the dead.
Mexicans in New York celebrate Day of the Dead with Bread
BY ERICA PEARSON
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, November 1 2011, 6:22 PM
The Mexican bakery Don Paco Lopez Panaderia on Fourth Avenue features what is called Pan de Muerto or ‘Bread of the Dead.’
For a Sunset Park bakery, keeping Mexican Day of the Dead traditions alive is big business.
“Do you want muertos? They’re hot,” said Sara Lopez, as customers lined up to buy sweet loaves and rolls called “bread of the dead” at her family’s bakery on Fourth Ave.
Mexican immigrants from across the city buy thousands of the treats from Don Paco Lopez Panaderia for themselves and to put in special altars or ofrendas for loved ones over the holiday, which ends Wednesday.
Traditional alters of food, coffee and candles are on display in the shop. Spirits are believed to visit their altars beginning at noon Nov. 1, and the next day families go to loved ones’ graves to celebrate their memory.
At the bakery her father founded more than 20 years ago, Sara Lopez sets up a traditional ofrenda with frosted sugar skulls, marigold flowers and photos of her sister and aunt who are deceased.
This year, one of the cashiers also added a photo of her mother – and Lopez’ sister in law puts out a fresh cup of coffee each day for her father. Candles, fruit, glasses of water, a bottle of tequila – and several bread loaves, of course – complete the offerings.
“In an ofrenda, there always has to be bread,” said Lopez.
This bread commemorates All Saints Day and then the following day of remembrance of the dead entitled ‘Day of the Dead.’ (Todd Maisel/New York Daily News)
Four generations of Lopezes have baked these treats – Sara Lopez’ father Francisco “Paco” Lopez got his recipe from his grandfather, who was a baker in Acatlán de Osorio, a small town in the Mexican state of Puebla.
The family has also opened a second branch in Harlem – and together they sell as many as 3,000 pan de muertos or “bread of the dead” loaves and rolls each day around the holiday. It’s their second busiest time of year, besides Three Kings’ Day in January.
“We continue with the tradition,” said Sara Lopez’ younger brother Paco Lopez Jr., 34. “It is a very important celebration. I think our obligation goes beyond selling – it is a cultural thing that we must share.”
They make different sizes of round loaves with decorative “bones” on the top, dusting some with sugar and putting sesame seeds, which signify tears, on others.
Red-sugar-dusted breads in the shape of a woman lying with her arms crossed, called “monas,” are also popular. Prices range from $1.50 to $8, depending on the size.
A colorful skull helps to celebrate the festive holiday. On Tuesday, Monica Flores, 37, brought her six-year-old daughter Dayanara to the bakery to pick out breads for an altar to her mother, father and grandmother. “We’re passing the tradition down to them,” she said, smiling at Dayanara. Victoria Vaquero Tlaltelpa, 63, bought 24 breads – spending more than $90 to get one of each kind for the 12 people she has lost. “I feel like I’m with them and they’re with me,” said Vaquero Tlaltelpa, who sets up a specialspot on the Day of the Dead altar in her Sunset Park home for her husband Jorge, who died four years ago.
On Wednesday, Vaquero Tlaltelpa will follow the second part of Day of the Dead tradition at her husband’s grave in Staten Island bringing all of his treats to the cemetery. “I give him mole, apples, oranges and his tequila too,” she said.
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Yeast bread becomes star on Day of the Dead
The sweet Mexican bread commonly eaten for breakfast takes on special significance this time of year in celebration of Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
Pan dulce, as the traditional yeast bread is known, is given as an offering to the dearly departed during this two-day observance of ancient folk religions and Catholic traditions celebrated on All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1 and on All Souls’ Day on Nov. 2.
“You celebrate the person who passed away, what he liked,” said Omar Rojas, manager of the Lander Avenue La Perla Tapatia in Turlock, Calif. The store’s bakery, under the direction of Jose Torrez, will begin supplying pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, to the area’s La Perla stores this week.
The round loaves of bread topped with a crisp sugar coating striped in seashell patterns so ubiquitous at Latino stores year-round is instead baked for the holiday in the form of angel wings, or round shapes decorated with bones or a skull or to resemble a face. The dough recipe for pan dulce and Dia de Los Muertos bread is the same.
Samantha Yniguez, owner of Little Pink Boxes Bake Shop in Merced, Calif., said the sugar topping is replaced with a syrup made with sugar and orange juice and applied on the loaves near the end of the baking time.
Rojas said families honor the dead by cleaning the headstones of loved ones and building personal altars to them. Events are centered on the belief that the spirits of loved ones float back to Earth to reunite with their living relatives and friends for a brief moment and to eat their favorite foods.
Altars serve as focal points, displaying the mementos of the loved ones. They’re adorned with orange marigolds, the flor de muerte, the deceased person’s favorite foods and drink, candles and the bread. All are thought to attract the spirit of the dead during a time of year when the spirit world and real world come close together. After the festivities, families eat the sweet bread.
Bread of the Dead
2 packages active dry yeast
5 tablespoons warm milk
7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/4 cups butter
2 cups sugar
12 eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract For glaze:
1/4 cup each granulated sugar and orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons sugar, for sprinkling
Dissolve yeast into warm milk. Pour flour into a large bowl. Cut butter into pieces and then combine with the flour until it resembles a coarse texture. Make a well in center of flour and add sugar, eggs, cinnamon and vanilla. Mix with spoon and then with your hands until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If it’s too soft, add a little more flour and knead.
Shape into a ball, oil and flour lightly. Return to bowl, cover and let stand in warm place for 2 1/2 hours, until doubled in size. Refrigerate overnight.
Shape chilled dough into 30 balls the size of peaches or cut dough into thirds for larger loaves. Place on greased baking sheets and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes; they are done when the bottoms sound hollow when tapped.
For glaze: Over medium heat, combine ingredients and, stirring, bring to a boil. Let boil two minutes. Brush over breads, then sprinkle with sugar. Makes 3 large loaves.
—Recipe from Samantha Yniguez of Little Pink Boxes Bake Shop, 433 W. Main St., Merced, Calif.
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