In the streets of Bolivia, especially in La Paz, you can already see the preparations for the festival Todos Santos (All Saints' Day) a few days before November 1st. The bakers are already getting ready for the big day – and many shops rent out ovens where families will bake various pastries: pieces of bread shaped like stairs, crosses, stars, horses, or birds serve as symbolic offerings to welcome the spirits of the dead, who visit the world of the living every year on November 1st.
In the Andean region, tradition holds that the souls of the deceased visit the living at noon on November 1st to accompany their relatives for a few hours. Afterwards, they return to their new resting place with everything that was offered to them.
For this reason, it is customary for relatives to set up a large table for the arrival of the deceased's soul and place their favorite foods on it, along with a photo and the name of the absent person. On the table, which also serves as an altar, everything – from staple foods like bread shapes to dishes specially prepared for the deceased – is placed.
However, the living must prepare some things for the souls' visit, such as bread in the shape of a ladder, which serves for their descent and subsequent return to the place from which they came – or horses, which are believed to help the spirits transport all the gifts given to them during their visit.
Tantawawa Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups wheat flour
½ cup panela/raw sugar
¼ cup soft butter
1 cube dry yeast
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground anise or 1 packet of anise tea
1/8 teaspoon vanilla essence
150 ml water
2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
Preparation:
Place 1 cube of yeast (42 g) along with a teaspoon of sugar in a cup with 150 ml of lukewarm water and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Add 1 teaspoon of anise. Alternatively, you can prepare 1 small glass of anise tea, let it steep for 5 minutes, and add it.
Add ½ tablespoon of cinnamon powder and stir well.
In a bowl, combine 2 cups of wheat flour and ½ cup of panela/raw sugar (or white sugar as an alternative).
Grind ½ teaspoon of cloves into powder in a mortar and add it to the bowl along with 2 eggs and ¼ cup of soft butter. Now add the cup with the yeast-anise-cinnamon mixture. For flavor, add a few drops of vanilla essence.
Knead the dough well for about 10 minutes and then let it rest covered for 30 minutes so that the dough can rise peacefully.
Shape the dough into 3 equal-sized balls. Now it's time to get creative!
Roll out the dough balls flat with a rolling pin and shape them into the three desired Tantawawa figures.
Carefully adjust the Caritas mask on the head of the shaped figure by gently pressing it into the dough. However, be sure to remove the mask before baking; it will only be placed back on the bread after baking!
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Brush the dough pieces with 1 egg yolk. Bake at 180°C for 30 minutes.
Place the appropriate mask/Caritas on the finished Tantawawa.
