By MELISSA T. CASTRO

Every Mexican vendor that you typically turn to for your baked-goods has one universal item on sale at this time of year – Pan de Muerto.

Pan de Muerto or Bread of the Dead, dates back to pre-Colombian times, when the Aztecs revered and held festivities for Mictlantecuhtli, God of the Underworld.

After a human sacrifice, a bread of ground amaranth would be mixed with the mopped up blood and offered to the Gods as a way to curry favour.

Needless to say Spanish missionaries were appalled by these rituals and tried to abolish the practice outright. Unfortunately it’s hard to wipe out a tradition that dates back over 3,000 years, so instead, they decided to embrace the holiday.

By tweaking the date on the Aztec solar calendar to accommodate the Christian calendar, they were able to adjust the Día de Muertos to coincide with the Catholic All Saints’ Day holiday.

The blood-soaked bread was transitioned to a wheat patisserie covered in red sugar and skeletal representations, thus satisfying the colonisers and the indigenous population.

Today’s pan de muerto is a far-cry from its gruesome origins. Nowadays the most controversial topic surrounding it, is to determine who makes the best pan de muerto.

Traditional Pan de Muerto is a light brioche-like bread, sweet, but not too sweet, and very eggy. It’s nearly always flavored with anise seed, sometimes with lemon or orange zest, or even orange blossom water, and, occasionally, a little cinnamon or vanilla.

Spin-offs of the traditional recipe run the gamut from Pan de Muerto baked with chocolate, flavoured with lavender, or filled with a rich cream paste.

With an ever-growing buffet of tantalising flavours and fillings to satisfy even the pickiest eater, selecting what Pan de Muerto to buy requires a fair bit of research.

Enter Mexican dairy producer Santa Clara who on Friday, Oct. 25, hosted a bake-off at Mexico City’s newly opened Parque Urbano Aztlán, with the goal of crowning the best Pan de Muerto.

With 21 of Mexico City’s bakeries offering their take on Pan de Muerto, there was no shortage of sugar-coated hands as the judges carefully tasted each bread within the three categories: traditional, filled, and most unique.

Taking first place for the evening in the traditional Pan de Muerto grouping, the 81-year-old Elizondo bakery chain was recognised for their faithfulness to the classic recipe.

French bakery company Maison Kayser placed at the top of the filled bread bracket, offering up a mostly traditional Pan de Muerto piped to bursting with nata. Other standouts from this group were Sofitel’s orange blossom and orange filled pastry, and Pastelería Amado’s sticky and oh-so decadent guava filled Pan.

Wrapping up the night was Pastelería Alcazar, who’s unique proposal was a mazapán festooned Pan de Muerto, which has creatively incorporated the Mexican peanut candy into the baking, filling, and garnishing of their Pan offering.

The Santa Clara Pan de Muerto bake-off (Paneada) is in its eleventh year and also served to commemorate the dairy’s 100 year anniversary.

With a good Pan de Muerto in one hand, a chaser of hot chocolate in the other, it’s time to celebrate death and remember the dearly departed.