Guaguas de Pan and Colada Morada
Try this delicious, traditional Ecuadorian pairing for your next Día de los Muertos (or Día de los Difuntos) celebration.
Ingredients
Guaguas de pan
- 1/2 cup milk, warm
- 2 tsp yeast
- 4 cups flour, divided
- 4 eggs, whole
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 8 tbs butter, room temperature Cut into roughly tablespoon-sized chunks
- 2 egg yolks
Icing
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 4 tbs water
- food coloring
Colada Morada
- 1 pineapple, whole
- 5-6 cinnamon sticks
- 4-5 all spice berries, whole
- 4-5 cloves, whole
- herb blend 1/3 orange peel as well as a few lemon verbena, orange, and myrtle leaves
- 12-14 oz panela Or brown sugar
- 12 cups water, separated
- 2 cups blueberries Fresh or frozen
- 2 cups blackberries Fresh or frozen
- 1 cup purple or black corn flour
- 14 oz naranjilla pulp Lulo pulp, can be substituted by passionfruit
- 2 cups strawberries, sliced Fresh is best
Instructions
Guaguas de pan
- Dissolve yeast in warm milk.
- Whisk in 1/2 cup of flour until the mix forms a creamy paste. Set in warm place to let dough rise and fall, takes about 1 hour.
- Add whole eggs, salt, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and remaining 3 1/2 cup flour to mixture. Combine until evenly mixed.
- Add butter, then knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. If it's sticky, knead in additional flour about 1 tbs at a time.
- Cover dough and let rise in a warm place until the volume doubles, takes about 2 hours.
- Punch down the dough and knead a few times.
- Prepare a rolling surface by lightly dusting with flour. Roll dough out until about 1 inch thick. Separate the dough before rolling if it's too big for the prepared surface.
- Form the doll shapes by either by hand or with a cookie cutter.
- Place figurines on prepared baking sheet, an inch or two apart. Set aside to let rise until half-doubled, about 15-20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 360 F.
- Beat egg yolks with a splash of cold water or milk until pale yellow.
- Brush egg yolk mix onto figurines.
- Bake until golden, about 15-20 minutes.
- Cool on wire rack when done. Let cool completely before decorating.
Icing
- Whisk together sugar and water until a smooth paste forms.
- Separate into bowls according to how many colors you'd like to make. Mix in food coloring until desired color is reached.
Colada Morada
- Cut the pineapple. Leave the meat in chunks, and keep the skin and core.
- In a pot, combine the pineapple skins and cores with the cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and panela. Add 8 cups of water and boil for about 20-25 minutes.
- In a separate pot, combine blueberries, blackberries and 4 cups of water. Boil for about 20 minutes.
- Once both liquids have cooled enough, strain each separately.
- In a bowl, add 1 cup of the spiced pineapple liquid to the purple flour. Mix well to avoid lumps.
- Return the berry liquid to the larger pot, adding the naranjilla pulp, the spiced pineapple liquid, and the flour mix.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
- Add the pineapple chunks, and reduce heat to a simmer. Let simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat, add strawberry slices. Enjoy warm or cold!
Notes
The dough can be made in a food processor, as well. You'd still want to whisk the flour and yeast by hand, but after that you can use the food processor to pulse together the other ingredients without changing the order.
