This is a holiday I can get behind. I'm the kind of girl who if she could time travel would not go to the future, but to the past. I'm the girl who designed cemeteries in grad school. I'm the girl who traveled around North Carolina, Georgia and Florida making rubbings and molds of ancestors' gravestones. It took me 12 years of living in LA to get around to celebrating this holiday. I'm not the biggest Halloween fan - making a costume is just too much trouble, yet spending a weekend planning a party and several hours making bread, well, that I'll do!
I found this recipe in Fine Cooking:
http://www.finecooking.com/
How could I resist making something so adorable? I made a few mistakes along the way - like turning the oven on prematurely during the bread's second rising (I put it in there because with the pilot light on it's nice and warm). I also made a mess of the 'bones' that decorate the top of the bread. Oh well. The bread didn't seem to suffer any for not completing the second rising or not having perfect bones. This bread is similar in texture to challah and brioche but with the lovely addition of orange. Through a sleepy sugar coma, induced by cherry cordial, 2 kinds of hot chocolate, one being spiked with bourbon, and double chocolate cookies my guests made it to the grand finale - the Pan de Muerto! Check it out.
