Day Sixty-Seven: Pan de Yema Oaxaqueño
If you’re ever wondering what to do with an excess of leftover egg yolks, particularly if you’ve recently made a meringue or an angel food cake, this is the bread recipe for you.
Literally meaning “Oaxacan Yolk Bread,” pan de yema Oaxaqueño is kind of like the love child of challah and brioche. It’s full of eggs and butter and as such, is probably not the best idea to stuff yourself with for those of you watching your cholesterol.
But the taste! Oh, the taste is glorious. The anise seeds push this over the top and into the realm of glory, truly.
Now, traditionally, this would be made in a loaf form. And slashed in the top to let steam out, as so many breads are. Maybe it was my joy at making bread again, or maybe it was the fact that it seems spring is finally in the air here in Chicago, or maybe it was this recent post of Beijing Fi’s that did it. Who knows? In any case, I believe I’ve made it clear how I feel about playing with my food before, right? So, I made a happy octopus out of it. As you do. 
As usual, I halved the recipe. I also used bread flour instead of all-purpose. This dough is rather sticky, and I’ve been reading Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible
I didn’t use the sesame seeds (hey, the recipe said they were optional! 
), but as you can see from the photos, I did use the egg wash. I should also have done something to restrict the interior of the smile so that it would have been a little less messy, but I still like his gap-toothed grin. 2
At last, an octopus even a vegetarian can love eating. 
As of this writing, he’s only got the foreshortened tentacles left. Still smiling, though…quite happily. And quite deliciously.
- More on this later; I’m actually adoring this book right now but am not quite done with it, so expect a full review in a few days. [↩]
- Joe suggested I should put this bread on a dowel and walk around at Mitsuwa using it as a mask. [↩]
Janaki
on March 13th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
But surely this is Cthulu’s happy twin?
on March 14th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Wow, did you come back with a vengeance. Both adorable and delicious, that’s a rare combination. I love it (and I love anise, too).
Side note – I managed to get jury duty rescheduled. It will quite difficult to get a hold of anyone, but once I did, it took ten seconds to change my date to the summer sometime.
on March 15th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Sophie: I did actually almost refer to it as Cthulhu bread. Almost.
Michael: Thanks!
You know, the anise thing reminds me…I never made springerle over the holidays. Clearly this is a situation that needs to be rectified.
*toddles off to kitchen*
Hope if you’re stuck on jury duty, it’s at least an interesting case!