Dia de los Muertos

Here is a post from November 2012 that I wrote, but never published because I was planning to add additional content to it. I am publishing it in it's original unedited form.

Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday that is celebrated We created our own ofrenda to honor deceased family.  As part of this we baked the traditional Pan de Muerto, or bread of the dead.  Now if this is sounding like a post that belongs over on my home schooling blog... perhaps it does.  But part of why I wanted to post it over here instead is that this blog is much more active that my kids home schooling blog right now, and the other is that we read several books as part of our study.  You don't always need to read a long book to engage in an adventure.  In fact, children's literature is based on that very adventure.

For simplicity's sake and because she is the only recently deceased relative we have with whom my children are familiar, we only included one family member to be honored on our ofrenda.  +

This is the recipe we used:

Ingredients1½ cups Flour ½ cups Sugar1t Salt2 Packets Dry Yeast1t Anis Seeds ½ cup Milk½ cup Water½ cup Butter4  Eggs4½ cups Flour Instructions Mix all dry ingredients together except the 4 1/2 cups of flour In a small pan, heat the milk, the water, and the butter. Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture. Beat well. Mix in the eggs and the first 1 1/2 cups of flour. Beat. Little by little add in the rest of the flour. Knead the mixture on a floured board for 10 minutes. Put the dough in a greased bowl and allow it to rise until it has doubled in size.  Punch the dough down and reshape. On top put some strips of dough simulating bones, and a little ball (tear).  Let it rise another hour. Bake at 350° F  for about 40 minute Glaze: 1/2 cup Sugar 1/3 cup fresh OrangeJuice 2 tablespoons grated Orange Zest Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then apply to bread with a pastry brush. Sprinkle on colored sugar while glaze is still damp.