Name: French Spice Bread (Pain d’épice)
Yield: Makes 1 loaf
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 225 g/8 oz wholemeal rye flour; 30 g/1 oz white sugar; 225 ml/8 fl oz honey; a little milk and sugar boiled to a syrup for glaze; 30 g/1 oz ground almonds; the grated zest of half an orange; ½ teaspoon baking powder; the grated zest of half a lemon; 2 bulbs stem ginger; 2 teaspoons fennel seeds; ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda; ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation info

Makes
1
loaf

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Making Bread at Home

By Tom Jaine

Published 2005

About

All over northern Europe, people once seemed to make celebration biscuits and cookies of gingerbread at the drop of a festive hat. Each town had its own shape, its own recipe, its trademark.

Gingerbread men are still a happy feature on Dutch, German, and British tables, but not something you expect to see in France where the spiced bread pain d’épice has carried the standard of honeyed sweetness coupled with the bite and zest of spices: always symbols of extravagance and celebration