Bread of the Dead dates back to an ancient tradition linked to the night between All Saints’ Day and the Day of the Dead.
A rural tradition linked to the ritual of offering food to the dead.
According to some popular beliefs, it was thought that on the day of the commemoration of the deceased, the dead would return to their homes, temporarily leaving the afterlife.
To welcome them, sweet bread was prepared to offer at the table as if the deceased participated in the meal with their living relatives.
For this reason, these sweets were called bread of the dead.
The sweet is widespread mainly in Lombardy and Liguria (in Milan, Brianza, and in the province of Savona where I live…), but generally throughout Italy, with some differences in ingredients and preparation.
It is a rich sweet based on dry biscuits, flour, cocoa, white wine, dried fruits, cinnamon, and egg white, marked by a cross engraved on top.
The ancient recipe dates back to the ancient Greeks who offered a bread for the dead to Demeter, the Goddess of the harvests to ensure a good crop.
The Romans, on the other hand, offered bread, sweets, and fruit to the poor of the village to remember the deceased.
It was once based on a traditional North European recipe: the Pepparkakor, a spiced bread based on ginger and cinnamon, which is the basis of ginger cookies.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 15 pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter, Day of the Dead
Ingredients
- 2.8 oz dried fruits (almonds, hazelnuts)
- 2.8 oz dried figs
- 8.8 oz dry biscuits
- 3.2 oz amaretti biscuits (from Sassello)
- 6 oz flour
- 5.3 oz sugar
- 1.4 oz unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2.8 oz raisins
- 4 egg whites
- 2 tsp baking powder
- to taste cinnamon powder
- to taste nutmeg
- to taste vin santo (or white wine)
Steps
Chop the dried fruits and the dried figs.
Soak the raisins.
Crumble the dry biscuits and amaretti, add the dried fruits, flour, sugar, cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon, and the dried figs.
Mix.
Add the squeezed raisins, egg whites, vin santo, and baking powder. Adjust the wine based on the dough’s softness.
Form small elongated loaves, engrave a cross on top, and bake at 338°F (170°C), static oven, for about 20 minutes.
Bread of the Dead and Bones of the Dead:
In the Catholic tradition, the bread of the dead is accompanied by another typical sweet with which it is often confused: the bones of the dead. Dry biscuits made with flour, baking soda, and whole hazelnuts shaped like breadsticks that resemble bones, differing only in Lunigiana where they are based on marzipan.
