Halloween à la Ecuadorian: Guaguas de Pan and Colada Morada

Guaguas de what?

Si, this is what we were doing these past days. Let’s start with the translation: Guagua means baby – Pan means bread; Colada means a kind of punch/smoothie – Morada means purple. Comprende? Good. So our equivalent to Halloween is “El Día de los Difuntos”, when we remember the people that are no longer with us by making some guaguas de pan and some colada morada. It’s one of those latino holidays that’s a mix between a catholic and a indigenous celebración. I think it’s very important to never, nunca forget our roots and our tradiciones. This is why we still celebrate this holiday, no matter if we are in München or in China. It’s a really cool opportunity to get together with amigos and familia, bake some guaguas and, here’s the fun part, decorate them!

A gallery of Guaguas de Pan

Guaguas de pan baking day

This year my best friend’s mom, an ecuatoriana of course, made the dough so I don’t have the recipe, BUT since I’ll be home for Christmas, I will bring back my abuelita’s recipe for next year. In the meantime, we really let our imaginación fly high this year:

Imagination flies with the guaguas de pan

My yearly Frida Kahlo guagua de pan

Husband and Wife Guaguas de Pan

The Colada Morada is one of those recipes that are meant to be made by your mamá or your abuela, not the daughter or the hija. It’s a really long, arduous, difficult type of beverage and you really need practice to master it. Still, if you are interested I found one of those mamás who clearly masters the art of the colada morada. Take a look here.
It’s really fun, Ecuadorian or not I say give a try!

Happy guaguas holiday to ya’ll!