Oct. 21, 2021
Pan de muerto
In kitchens across Mexico, the first two days of November smell of candied pumpkin, rich, dark mole negro, and freshly baked pan de muerto – the bread of the dead.
Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, originated from an Indigenous tradition in central and southern Mexico of making offerings to deceased loved ones and evolved with the arrival of Catholicism. More recently, the tradition of altars to ancestors – ofrendas – and the larger idea of the holiday spread rapidly, first to other regions of Mexico starting in the 1980s, then around the U.S. in the decades that followed.
While the colorful sugar skulls and papel picado decorations dominate the imagery, the orange-blossom scent of pan de muerto overwhelmingly represents the smell and flavor of the holiday.
But in Seattle, where the pan dulce (Mexican pastries) in general fall short, pan de muerto remains rare. “It’s one of the biggest traditions in Mexico,” says Seattle pastry chef Karen Sandoval of her hometown. Two years ago, after a request from her sister, she went on a hunt. “It was so hard to find places that did have it,” she says, and when they did, she found it mediocre.
“OK, we’re going to have to start pretty much from scratch,” she thought. “Nobody could tell me a lot of the history behind it.” She began researching the sweet eggy pastry that her sister craved and the traditions around it, then, last year, started selling it through her pop-up bakery, Bakescapade.
Sandoval plans to again fill in the pan de muerto gap in Seattle, selling them at a pop-up at Rose Gift House and Coffee in Renton on Oct. 31
The bread – as the wheat flour base and other European ingredients indicate – came about after the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, but its roots come from an Aztec offering. Variations on the history describe it as an actual human heart, while others call it a cake made with blood – either way, the colonizers found this violent and the recipe morphed into its current form: a rich bread, sometimes sprinkled with red sugar standing in for blood.
Pan de muerto differs in shape and flavor around Mexico, but Sandoval used the ones she remembers her grandmother placing on the ofrenda in their Mexico City home as a child for her model. The round shape signifies the circle of life and she adds longer strands of bread on the top that look like bones, which represent death. The orange blossom smell, Sandoval explains, lets the dead know that it’s time to go and visit their families. “The anise seed is just a very popular flavor in Mexico City,” says Sandoval. “I think that’s why they added it, because places like Michoacán and Guadalajara don’t have it.”
Sandoval saw her mother let go of many traditions, including the ofrenda, when they moved to Seattle, so she asked her family and studied to recreate the specific flavors. The bread itself came together quickly for the experienced pastry chef (previously at FlintCreek Cattle Co.). Like Bakescapade’s main focus, the shell-shaped Mexican pastry called conchas, she says, “it’s pretty much all brioche.”
Once she felt confident baking pan de muerto, Sandoval made her own version. “I still want tradition behind it, I want everyone to have that flashback of childhood.” But she also used her expertise to elaborate on them. Last year, she offered classic, pumpkin spice, and apple pie versions, with Nutella and dulce de leche filling options. “I’m trying to get everyone excited,” she says. “Pan dulce is just like bread, it doesn’t always have to be the same.”
This year, Sandoval plans to again fill in the pan de muerto gap in Seattle, selling them at a pop-up at Rose Gift House and Coffee in Renton on Oct. 31, with preorders on sale Oct. 22. She and her sister plan to set up their own altar this year for the event, and the new flavors include a black cocoa option.
“What’s so cool about making pan dulce here, it really homes you back in,” Sandoval says. “I wanted to make sure I was also representing my people.”
Seattle-area pastry pop-ups featuring Latin American favorites
Naomi Tomky, Special to the SeattlePI
July 10, 2021
After leaving her job as pastry chef at FlintCreek Cattle Co. in 2019, Karen Sandoval started offering baked goods up on Instagram, starting with holiday pies. But in the pandemic, she found her groove – and an audience for her meticulous and flavorful re-creations of the baked goods of her Mexican heritage. A year later, her holiday offerings included chocolate peppermint and rompope flavored conchas and now she semi-regularly offers the sweet buns up for sale on Instagram – as well as other seasonal specials – like pan de muerto in the fall.