Pan dushi — 'sweet bread' — is the enriched celebration loaf of Aruba and Curaçao, perfumed with aniseed and dotted with raisins. It appears at holidays and gatherings, the festive counterpart to everyday pan bati.
Tear a slice of pan dushi and it is soft, golden, and faintly sweet, fragrant with aniseed and orange, studded with sweet raisins. Bite: a tender, enriched brioche-like crumb, gently sweet, the anise giving a warm liquorice note and the raisins bursts of sweetness. The celebration sweet bread of the ABC islands, sliced with coffee.
Enriching the yeast dough with eggs, butter, and milk gives a soft brioche-like crumb; the long rise develops flavor. Aniseed and orange zest are the island aromatics, baked in, and raisins add sweetness — a festive sweet bread in the Dutch-Iberian tradition.
Variations
Braided. With candied fruit. With more aniseed. With a sugar glaze. As small rolls. With rum-soaked raisins.
On the Palate
Where Pan Dushi sits in the Aruban flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 35 min active + 2 hours 25 min waiting
- 112 min
Warm 200 ml milk; dissolve 10 g yeast and 1 tbsp sugar; let foam.
Watch outThe yeast should foam up into a frothy cap in a few minutes — no foam means dead yeast and a brick of a loaf, so start over.
- 28 min
Mix into 500 g flour with 80 g sugar, 2 eggs, 60 g butter, 1 tsp aniseed, and orange zest.
- 392 min
Knead to a soft dough; rise 90 min until doubled.
Watch outKnead the enriched dough until it's smooth and springs back — with all the butter and egg it stays a bit tacky, that's right; it should double in the rise.
- 45 min
Knock back and work in 100 g raisins.
- 54 min
Shape into a loaf (or braid) and place in a tin.
- 646 min
Prove 45 min.
- 730 min
Brush with egg and bake at 180°C for 30 min until golden.
Watch outBrush with egg for the shine and pull it at deep golden — tap the base, it should sound hollow when the crumb is baked through.
- 83 min
Cool and serve in slices with coffee.
