I love skeletons and skulls and spooky things in general (think Scooby Doo and Victorian horror novels level of scariness), so I always get very excited about the idea of baking things in that theme.
The more I learn about this, the more I realise there are a lot of traditional goods that were also baked in commemoration of the loved (but dead) people. All of these things look very interesting to me but I have no time to tackle all of them at the same time.
So I decided to make a list! Maybe it gives you ideas. Show me your pictures!
Things I’ve made
First, some ideas for you! These are all things I’ve made. Do click the images for recipes.
Skull scones (sweet & with chocolate)
Bone-shaped scones (with cheese)
Poison pie
Fogassa d’Ontinyent
This is an enriched sweet bun with raisins, almonds and walnuts that is traditionally made around All Hallows’ Day. Recipe is here.
Things that I’m intrigued to try
This is my “to do list”, by any other name.
- Pan de Muerto (“bread of the dead”): a Mexican creation which sounds uncannily similar to the Fogassa d’Ontinyent! Enriched bun, but without raisins or nuts, and some bone-shaped decoration on top.
- Pan dei morti (“bread of the dead”): a Milanese take on the same concept. Very different, as it is dark and with dried fruits etc.
- Fave dei Morti (“beans of the dead”): an Italian sweet made of almond and shaped like beans. It seems that different regions will offer them in slightly different manners: some will make small portions, some will colour them, others will have a harder texture, etc.
- Ossa di morto (“bones of the dead”): Sicilians go straight to the point, opting to represent bones. OK! The list of ingredients in this recipe looks very similar to what you need to make casquinyols, whereas this other one looks totally different and freaking complicated.
- Boogasse: a pun on “boo” and “fougasse”, or trying to make scary looking fougasses, by shaping them as ghosts, skulls, “Scream” movie masks… Like this:
Here’s a recipe for fougasse from Real Bread Campaign. It’s then just about shaping them in an scary manner!