At this Boyle Heights shop, a little bit of community is baked into every pan de muerto

Editor's note: This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat

Bright gold marigolds, beautifully adorned calacas (skeleton figures ), and sweet pan de muerto are commonly associated with Día de Los Muertos celebrations, but most people don’t know that there are different regional ways to make the seasonal bread.

Shortly after opening La Sureñita Bakery on 4th Street in 2015, Bernardo Cortez was excited to offer his very own pan de muerto during the season. He was using a traditional recipe from his home state of Guerrero, Mexico, that utilizes oranges, but found that it wasn’t what folks near the 4th Street bakery were used to.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

“We barely sold any our first year here,” Cortez said. “One of the local señoras from Puebla told us we needed to make one with guayabas (guava) and canela (cinnamon), and that she had a really good recipe for how to make it. We struck a deal, that as long as I’m alive we’d make her a personal platter of the pan every year in exchange for the recipe.”

Commonly referred to as hojaldras, this unique bread is a regional variant enjoyed in Puebla, Mexico. Though identical in appearance to the orange zest variant, its taste is quite distinct with the characteristic sweetness of the guayaba.

Cortez says it’s not only a great way of acknowledging the large population of nearby residents with roots in Puebla, but also cost-effective, as the fruit becomes plentiful around the holiday.

La Sureñita is a family bakery through and through, with all hands on deck for seasonal desserts.

(

Boyle Heights Beat

)

Lidia Cortez-Salinas grabs a tray of fresh hojaldras to package for a regular customer at La Sureñita Bakery in Boyle Heights

(

Andrew Lopez

/

Boyle Heights Beat

)

“We have a really great community here in Boyle Heights that helps each other out,” Cortez said. “Folks around the block with their own guayaba trees bring baskets for me to make the bread. This helps us keep the ingredients as simple as possible, and there’s a little bit of the neighborhood in every bite. I’m so grateful to the people who support our family business.”

That communal love is translated into every pan, made from scratch at the family-run business. From mixing the dough with the gifted recipe and weighing it out in different sizes to creating the bread’s signature design by rolling the dough in between fingers, it’s a hands-on process that produces one of the most beautiful breads you’ll find in Boyle Heights.

Bernardo Cortez holds up a tray of freshly picked guayabas, a gift from a neighbor.

(

Andrew Lopez

/

Boyle Heights Beat

)

As Cortez describes it, the bread represents the duality of life and death at the core of Día de los Muertos. The small ball upon its center symbolizes a skull, and the four pieces that lay on the bread in the shape of a cross are bones and tears of those who have passed.

When not being enjoyed by the living, the bread is often displayed on ofrendas for deceased family members to savor in the afterlife.

Bernardo Cortez says La Sureñita is a dream come true.

(

Andrew Lopez

/

Boyle Heights Beat

)

The formed masa of the hojaldras are covered with sesame seeds prior to being baked.

(

Andrew Lopez

/

Boyle Heights Beat

)

Seasonal breads are always popular at the shop. Their rosca de reyes are also popular in the days leading up to the Epiphany on Jan. 6.