Pinterest VS. Me

Dia de Muertos is a Mexican tradition where loved ones who have passed away are remembered by setting  altars with their favorites foods, drinks, etc. Growing up I didn't thought on this holiday too much because Halloween was always better. Getting to dress up and getting candy is just the best. But there is one thing in particular that I love and miss so much... Pan de Muertos! I have been in the United States 8 years and Mexican food always makes me homesick. Until a year ago I kept whining about how much I missed the food so I decided to start cooking it myself and making it as legit as possible. Believe me, you can try... but what makes Mexican food so stinking good it is the people. Relatives spending all day making preparations, the music, the drinks, the chisme (the gossip). Well I still want my tacos y pan so now I study a bunch of recipes that claim to be authentic mexican, always with a skepticism I dive into the deep of  the marvelous threads of Pinterest and with the help of my dear mother I make my own recipes.

This time I am attempting to make Pan de Muertos. I say attempting because MAN! it is serious work. My intentions were to knead the dough by hand... 10 minutes into it I got bored, my hands and arms were in soaring pain. I told my mom on FaceTime, "screw this I live in the 1st world I'm gonna bring my machine and let it do it for me" So I did and in a matter of 3 minutes my dough was ready... or so I thought. Now my precious dough is resting from all the beating. We are 1 hour and 30 minutes into the making of this bread... gosh I hope it turns out because that is a lot of time that I have spent in the kitchen. My bed isn't done, my son didn't get a nap, I forgot to eat lunch so this better work.

So I let the dumb dough rise (success) pre-heated my oven, got my pan ready, the glaze, the butter ready. The dough was so sticky and just impossible to work with. I felt defeated, extremely upset and hungry. So I said screw this I'm just gonna make it work somehow. I dumped the dough on the pan, it was hardly on a shape of a perfect ball. I didn't even try to do the bones... just get the dough in the oven!!!

I seriously went through the 5 steps of grief. After I was done cursing the recipe (to be honest I could have added more flour but my mother said, "nah you shouldn't have to add extra")
I tried the bread... and oh...maaaa.... gaaaaaah! It is soooo delicious. It does not look at all like the beautiful Pinterest bread but I bet it taste so much better!

Moral of the story.... making bread is way harder than I ever imagined. Plans don't always go as expect but in the end you end up pretty delicious bread.

(This is my version of Pan de Muertos)

Pinterest fail?

Recipe:

www.sweetpaulmag.com