Death Becomes Whimsical On Dia De Los Muertos

Oct 25, 2013
Originally published on October 25, 2013 7:55 pm

On the Mexican Dia de los Muertos holiday, the living remember the dead. Some believe they are communing with the deceased. While it may sound morbid, Pati Jinich, a Mexican-born blogger, food show personality and author of Pati's Mexican Table, says it's a joyous occasion.

"People get ready to welcome people — those who have deceased and that presumably have license to visit just once a year," Jinich told All Things Considered host Melissa Block.

The day before Halloween, people mark the day by cleaning their homes and sprucing up the graveyards of departed loved ones with flowers and decorations.

Death becomes whimsical on the Day of the Dead. People joke about death, they display miniature skeletons in fancy clothes, and children enjoy sugar skulls and other spooky confections.

Dia de los Muertos is also an occasion for traditional pan de muerto. While many buy this aromatic sweet bread, Jinich is not one of them. She says the dough can be "capricious" because it takes a lot of patience and requires multiple rises, but it's worth it.

"It is very messy, but it's so much fun," Jinich says.

Day of the Dead is also a time for families to make and share the favorite foods of their deceased loved ones, and Jinich says that often involves a mole, a thick sauce that has many variations and can be complex to make. But she has created one that's easy and a reflection of her Mexican heritage and her life in the U.S. It's a seasonal take on a traditional mole that's made from pureed pumpkin and ancho chiles.

Here are Pati Jinich's recipes for both pan de muerto and pumpkin ancho mole.

Pan De Muerto

1/2 cup lukewarm whole milk

2 packages active dry yeast (1/4 ounce each), or about 4 heaped teaspoons

1/2 cup all purpose flour, plus 3 1/2 cups for later on

1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more to grease the bowl, and 2 tablespoons to melt and brush on top

1/2 cup granulated sugar to make the dough, plus 1/2 cup for dusting the bread

6 large eggs, at room temperature

2 tablespoons orange blossom water, or plain water

1 teaspoon anise seeds, optional

1 teaspoon orange zest, optional

Pinch kosher or coarse sea salt

In a small bowl, pour the lukewarm milk — making sure that it is not hot nor cold or the yeast will not react — and stir in the dry yeast granules. Give the yeast a couple of minutes to sit in the liquid, and stir with a spatula until it is thoroughly and evenly dissolved. Give it time: Stir a little, pressing gently on the yeast that has not yet dissolved with the spatula, give it a bit more time to sit in the milk, stirring again, press again. Once it has completely and evenly dissolved, add 1/2 cup flour. Mix it, combining thoroughly, until it has no lumps. It will be gooey, runny and sticky. Leave it in the warmest area of your kitchen, for about 20 to 30 minutes, until it puffs up (to about double or triple its volume) and has bubbled on top. I like to place a saucepan or cup with boiling hot water right next to it, but it's not necessary.

In the bowl of a mixer, over medium low speed, beat the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until combined and fluffy. Add one egg at a time. Once eggs are incorporated, add the milk and yeast mixture. Then, 1/2 cup at a time, add the rest of the flour (3 1/2 cups). Stir in the orange blossom water if using or plain water. Also add the anise seeds and a pinch of salt. The dough will look wet, runny and sticky, but continue beating anywhere from 7 to 10 minutes, until all the dough comes off the sides of the mixing bowl. It will be elastic and sticky, but it will hold itself together.

Butter a large mixing bowl that can hold the dough and will be able to hold it as it doubles or triples its volume. Place the dough in the bowl, cover it with a cloth or clean kitchen towel and leave it in the warmest area of your kitchen, that is draft-free, making sure it is not next to a window or door that gets opened. Leave it to rest and puff up anywhere from 2 to 3 hours, until it doubles its volume at least.

Punch the dough with your fist, flip it over, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, remove the plastic wrap, place a cloth or kitchen towel on top and let it to come to room temperature.

Take off a third of the dough to make the bread decorations: Make a 1- to 2-inch ball and use the rest to make 2 ropes. They need not be smooth or perfect, as the dough is quite sticky, and no need to worry because they will look beautiful once the bread is baked and covered with sugar.

Butter a baking sheet or a bread or pizza stone, and make a ball with the rest of the dough. Place it in the center of the baking sheet and flatten it a bit on top. Place the dough ropes making a criss-cross — Mexican bakers usually shape the ropes to resemble bones, having thicker and thinner parts — and the ball on the top, right where they cross. Cover the bread with a cloth or kitchen towel, and let it rise and puff up again, for 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the bread for for about 35 minutes. Halfway through baking, after about 20 minutes, cover the loaf with parchment paper or aluminum foil to prevent it from browning too much.

When they are ready, they sound huecas, or hollow, if you hit the bottom of the bread.

Melt the butter and brush all over the bread. Sprinkle sugar all over until completely covered.

Ancho Chile And Pumpkin Mole (Mole De Chile Ancho Y Calabaza)

Makes 6 servings

1/2 white onion, peeled, charred or broiled

6 garlic cloves, charred or broiled, peeled

3 ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and opened

1/4 cup slivered almonds

5 whole cloves

1/2 stick, about 1 inch, true or Ceylon cinnamon (or substitute 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon)

8 whole allspice berries (or 1/8 teaspoon ground)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (about 1 3/4 cup)

3 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt, or more to taste

3 tablespoons brown sugar, or more to taste

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted


In an already hot skillet or comal set over medium-low heat, toast the ancho chiles for about 15 to 20 seconds per side, until they brown and crisp without burning. Place toasted ancho chiles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for 10 to 15 minutes until they are plumped up and rehydrated.

In the same skillet or comal, toast the cloves and allspice until aromatic, about a minute. Remove from the heat. Toast the almonds and cinnamon, stirring often, until lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes.


In a soup pot or casserole dish, heat the oil over medium heat and pour in the pureed mixture. Add the salt and sugar. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently to help prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pan. The color will darken considerably.

Add the pumpkin puree and chicken broth to the sauce. Stir well until the pumpkin puree has dissolved; it will have a silky consistency. Continue to cook for about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.


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And I'm Melissa Block.


BLOCK: Chef Pati Jinich has a brand new mixer.

PATI JINICH: I feel like I have a new car, let me tell you.


BLOCK: It's a rich persimmon color, a perfect match for her kitchen in the D.C. suburbs.

JINICH: OK. So I'm adding half a cup of flour.

BLOCK: Pati Jinich is a blogger, food show personality and author of "Pati's Mexican Table." She was born and raised in Mexico and she's teaching me two recipes for next week's holiday, Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. And she's breaking in her new mixer for the first one. It's a sweet, fragrant bread dough.

JINICH: It's incredibly powerful.

BLOCK: Oh, yeah. It smells like perfume.

We are making pan de muerto.

JINICH: The Day of the Dead bread is a necessity. You will not see a home or an altar without Day of the Dead bread.

BLOCK: For the Day of the Dead, the living remember the dead. Some believe they're actually communing with the deceased.

JINICH: It's actually a very joyous occasion where people get ready to welcome people, those that have deceased and that presumably have license to come visit just once a year. And the day before, what everybody here celebrates as Halloween, people start cleaning their homes. And I know it sounds a little bit morbid, but it's not, people go and clean the graveyards and put flowers and decorations and make it impeccable and gorgeous-looking.

BLOCK: Now, many Mexicans will buy their pan de muerto from a bakery. Pati is not one of them.

JINICH: This dough is capricious.

BLOCK: And it takes patience, with multiple rises. That means you have to get a head start at least a day before the holiday. Pati has several batches of dough going today in different stages. One is just about ready to bake, but it needs to be shaped and it is super sticky.

JINICH: It is very messy, but it's so much fun.


JINICH: It is so much fun.


BLOCK: Death becomes whimsical on Dia de los Muertos. People joke about death. They display miniature skeletons in fancy clothes. Children eat sugar skulls and other spooky confections.

JINICH: And I'm going to make two ropes that are going to cross the bread, resembling bones.

BLOCK: Like the cross bones.

JINICH: Exactly.


BLOCK: Pati makes a skull out of a small ball of dough and sticks it playfully on the top of the loaf. And while it may now resemble death, it smells heavenly.

Oh, it smells fantastic.

JINICH: And you can play with what you put in here. So I put rose water this time and a little bit of anise seeds. But you can put orange blossom water and some orange zest or a little bit orange juice or maybe a little bit of orange liquor. You can really take it places.

BLOCK: What's the significance of that? Why the flavors?

JINICH: So all the aromas and smells are meant to attract and to help those deceased coming back to visit find their way back home. And the foods are all very aromatic and intense.

BLOCK: OK. A final rise to the dough, then into the oven it goes. And 35 minutes later...



BLOCK: ...the Day of the Dead bread is done. A quick brush with butter, a generous sprinkle of sugar, and then it gets the knife.

JINICH: Ooh. Oh, my gosh, you guys. It's really beautiful.

BLOCK: The grain of the bread is so light and fluffy, and it's a beautiful creamy yellow color.

JINICH: I couldn't resist myself.


BLOCK: How is it?

JINICH: You have to try it. It's so good.

BLOCK: OK. Oh, it's delicious.


JINICH: It is delicious. It's the signature food of Day of the Dead, and it reminds you of why you're celebrating and it's satisfying and gratifying. And it's what you want to greet your guests and the people who are coming from the underworld.

BLOCK: But you cannot feast on bread alone. Pati says there is another thing essential for a family's celebration.

JINICH: So when people make the meals for Day of the Dead, they usually make the most favorite thing of the people that have left, and it most always is a mole.

BLOCK: A mole, a thick sauce made by grinding ingredients together. And yes, you might be thinking of the ever-popular mole poblano with its rich, chocolaty flavor. That's what I was thinking. But Pati Jinich says there are plenty of other moles, some very complicated. Her favorite, the one she created for her family here in the U.S., is easy. It's a pumpkin mole made with ancho chilies(ph).

JINICH: They've been dried for a long time. We have to wake them up and bring them back to life.

BLOCK: Good plan for The Day of the Dead, don't you think? We toast the chilies on a comal, a griddle, then simmer them in a saucepan.

JINICH: And look what happens to them, beautiful and plump and meaty. And you have transformed this ingredient.

BLOCK: That's a lot of chilies.

JINICH: Yes, but they're not spicy at all. They're like a mildly spicy prune.

BLOCK: Pati's mole requires more stovetop alchemy. She toasts garlic, onions, almonds, cloves, a cinnamon stick, allspice berries, toasts them for just a few minutes, not long at all. She puts them in a blender with the plumped chilies...


BLOCK: ...then pours that mixture into a pan of hot oil.

JINICH: OK. That's what you want.

BLOCK: You want to hear that sauce sizzle. It cooks and thickens. And three more ingredients are stirred in: brown sugar, pumpkin puree - yes, from a can - and chicken broth. Now, don't worry. We have the recipe at

Now, hypothetically, I'm thinking, you could put a little chocolate in there. Yeah?

JINICH: You could, of course.

BLOCK: Why not?


JINICH: But I think there is no need.

BLOCK: Need is never the question. You know that.


BLOCK: A few more minutes on the stove and the mole is a warm shade of dark brown. It makes Pati's kitchen smell like a spiced-up pumpkin pie.

JINICH: My husband likes it so much, he would eat it as a soup.

BLOCK: Just eat it right out of the pot with a spoon?


JINICH: Eat it right out of the pot. But you can cook some chicken, shrimp, meat, fish, whatever you want in whichever way, boiled or baked, and just ladle a couple of spoonfuls on top of it.

BLOCK: She ladles the pumpkin mole over chicken enchiladas and I have to tell you, as a Day of the Dead meal, it's worth coming back for.

Oh, that's really good. It's got such a great nuttiness to it. And the spices are - it's powerful, but it's not overwhelming.

JINICH: Is it spicy for you (unintelligible)?

BLOCK: It's just got a nice buzz to it.

JINICH: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Would you add chocolate?

BLOCK: I think it couldn't hurt.


JINICH: Well, Pati Jinich, thank you so much for making these wonderful things.

Oh, thank you so much for coming.

BLOCK: Pati Jinich is the woman behind "Pati's Mexican Table," the book, TV show and the blog. You can get a head start on your Day of the Dead cooking with recipes at Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.