Recipe: Tasty Pain d'épices (Spiced Sweet Bread)

Pain d'épices (Spiced Sweet Bread). Pain d'épices or pain d'épice (French for '"spice bread"', loosely translated as gingerbread) is a French cake or quick bread. French spice cake, pain d'epices is a classic loaf and easy to make. Kind of a cross between a cake and a bread clever French hosts (and hostesses…and probably everyone in between) will cut them in But pain d'épices is a French classic and no one seems to mind the aromatic mélange of spices.

French pain d'épices often gets mistranslated into English as "gingerbread," but beyond being heavily spiced and sweet, the two cakes bear little resemblance to one another. While the flavor of American gingerbread is dominated by molasses and the eponymous ginger, pain d'épices features rye flour. A classic French spice bread, this pain d'epices is made with rye flour and a warming blend of ground spices sweetened with honey. You can cook Pain d'épices (Spiced Sweet Bread) using 6 ingredients and 5 steps. Here is how you achieve it.

Ingredients of Pain d'épices (Spiced Sweet Bread)

1. It's 1/2 cup of + 1/3 cup (200ml) water.
2. Prepare 1/3 cup (125 g) of honey.
3. Prepare 1 tsp of baking soda.
4. It's 2 cups (250 g) of flour.
5. You need 1/3 cup (55 g) of sugar.
6. It's 1 Tbsp of anise seeds.

Pain d'epices recipe takes the cake (pardon the pun) for sheer aromatic deliciousness. Spread cream on bottom of glass in an even layer and add a quarter of spice bread and cover with a layer of pear and finish with remaining spice bread. Garnish with candied ginger slices and serve. Pain d'Épices (adapted from A Baker's Tour by Nick Malgieri).

Pain d'épices (Spiced Sweet Bread) instructions

1. Preheart your oven to 300°F/150°C..
2. Place water, honey and baking soda in a small pan. If you have a food scale it is easy to weigh 125g of your honey when you put the pan directly on the scale. This also reduces cleanup..
3. Bring ingredients to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and add the rest of ingredients. Mix them all..
4. Bake about 50 minutes or until the bread is done. Remove from your oven and enjoy with a cup of hot milk tea!.
5. I added cinnamon, nutmeg, marmalade and cranberries this time for my husband. Yum yum :).

Pain d'epices has so many memories for me in Alsace where I lived and there are so many derivative desserts you can make with the combination of spices in this wonderful bread with,(though dry mustard seems rather odd? The Mulot family have been producing this bread on the same site. Keep your pain d'épices spice blend in an airtight jar away from direct sunlight or hot temperatures. Best used within a few months but for optimal flavor use within a couple of weeks. When it comes to spice and seasoning blends the old adage was never more true: Homemade is always BEST!