Pain d'Épices
Ingredients
- 125 g dark rye flour
- 125 g all-purpose flour
- 30 g brown sugar
- 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg and ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp whole anise seeds
- ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper and ¼ tsp salt
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp finely grated orange zest
- 250 ml milk
- 250 g honey
- 1-2 whole star anise
The Académie française defined pain d'épices in 1694 as rye flour, honey and spices, and the best versions still are exactly that — a loaf with no eggs and no butter, whose entire texture comes from honey. Milk and honey are warmed together with star anise and poured into a bowl of rye and wheat flour spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, anise seed and a little black pepper. It bakes for an hour at a low temperature so the honey does not burn, and like most honey cakes it improves after a day or two wrapped up.
Method
Heat the oven to 150°C (305°F) with a rack in the centre, and grease and flour a 22 cm loaf pan.
Warm the milk and honey together with the star anise over medium heat until hot and the honey has dissolved, then take off the heat and leave to infuse.
Whisk both flours with the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, anise seeds, pepper, salt, baking soda and orange zest in a large bowl.
Discard the star anise and pour the milk and honey into the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon until just combined.
Scrape the batter into the pan and bake for 1 hour, until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool on a rack for 30 minutes before turning out. Wrapped, it keeps for a week.
