Julia Child - Un Par Un: PAIN D'EPICES 🌞
*Not wishing to discourage any brave souls, this is slightly easier recipe.
PAIN D’EPICES
[Spice Cake—Spice Bread—Honey Bread]
Epices is the French equivalent of gingerbread, but is made
with honey, rye flour, and mixed spices rather than from molasses,
white flour, and ginger. Every country in the Old World seems to
have a honey bread, and each region in France has its own special
formula. Dijon, for instance, cures the flour and honey mixture for
several months in wooden tubs before the final blending and baking.
Montbard stores the baked breads for a month before serving, and
Rheims mixes raw bread dough into the honey and rye. Some
recipes call for glacéed fruits, some for brown sugar, eggs, white
flour, or ground nuts. Potash was the original leavening agent, and
bakers often add carbonate of ammonia for a lighter loaf;
householders use bicarbonate of soda. Here is a delicious home
recipe that is easy to make by hand, and even easier in a heavy-duty
mixer with flat beater. Serve pain d’épices with butter for breakfast
or tea.
A NOTE ON THE RYE FLOUR
The rye flour called for here is ordinary supermarket rye flour
for general bread making. If you happen to have the so-called rye
meal, which is heavier and coarser, use half rye meal and half
regular all-purpose white flour; otherwise your pain d’épices will not
rise properly.
For about 5 cups of dough, to bake in one 8-cup bread pan or
two 4-cup pans
1) The batter
1 1/4 cups (1 Ib.) honey
1 cup sugar
3 cup boiling water
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tb bicarbonate of soda
3 to 4 cups (about 1 Ib.) rye flour measured
by scooping dry-measure cups into flour and sweeping off
excess (see note on rye flour preceding Step 1)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Either with a large wooden spoon or in a
A 3-to 4-quart mixing bowl, or the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer with flat
beater, blend the honey, sugar, and boiling water until sugar has
dissolved. Stir in the salt, soda and 3 cups of the mixer flour. Beat in
as much of the fourth cup of flour as will go in, to make a heavy,
sticky dough but one you can still manipulate. Beat thoroughly and
vigorously (4 to 5 minutes of beating, if you are using a mixer, will
improve texture).
****
3 ounces (about 2/3 cup)ground blanched
almonds (pulverize them in an electric blender)
1 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup dark rum
4 tsp ground anise seed (pulverize in an electric blender)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground mace
1 cup (8 ounces) glacéed fruit rinsed in boiling water, drained, and
cut into 1/8-inch pieces
(orange peel, lemon peel, and citron; or “fruit cake” mix)
Then add the rest of the ingredients
listed. (If you are using a mixer, let
the machine run at slow speed while
the additions go in.)
2) Baking and storing—baking time 1 to 1 1/4 hours
An 8-cup bread pan or two 4- to 5-cup pans,
heavily buttered and bottom lined with
buttered waxed paper
Turn the mixture into the pan or pans. Dip your fingers in cold water,
and smooth top of batter. Pans should be 1/3 to 2/3 filled. Bake in
middle level of preheated 325-degree oven. Batter will rise to fill pan
and top will probably crack slightly; it is best not to open oven door
for 45 minutes or to touch anything, for fear of releasing the soda-
engendered gases that are pushing the batter up.
Four- to 5-cup pans will take 50 to 60 minutes; the 8-cup pan, about
1 1/4 hours. The spice bread is done when a skewer plunged to
bottom of pan comes out clean, and when bread begins to show
faint lines of shrinkage from edges of pan.
Let cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then unmold on a rack.
Immediately peel paper off bottom and gently turn the bread puffed-
side up. When cold, in about 2 hours, wrap airtight in plastic. Pain
d’épices improves in flavor when aged, so do not serve it for at least
a day; a wait of several days is actually preferable. It will keep for
several weeks under refrigeration, or may be frozen for several
months.
Recipe From "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking Vol.2 "
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/132692.Mastering_the_Art_of_French_Cooking
Vraiment Delicieux! Jouir!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Anyway, I searched for a honey bread that doesn't use rye, and found this that I'm going to bake up just soon as my SS check gets here next week. (Don't have the money for even these ingredients right now... sigh...) This is a 3 ingredient Honey Bread, for those of us in love with honey AND breads! 
3 Ingredient Honey Bread
This honey bread is soft and sweet and just 3 Ingredients.
Servings: 10 slices
Prep Time: 5minutes mins
Cook Time: 40minutes mins
Total Time: 45minutes mins
Ingredients
3 cups (375 g) self rising flour, see note regarding flour amount
1-1/4 cups (296 ml) lowfat milk
1/4 cup (59 ml) honey
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. (177 C). Line and 8x4 inch baking loaf pan with parchment paper.
2. Add flour and milk to a large mixing bowl. Use a whisk to mix the two together, whisking until no flour lumps remain. Be careful not to overmix as it can make your bread tough.
3. Warm up the honey briefly in the microwave (about 15 seconds) until it is a thin runny liquid. You can also warm up the honey on the stove. Pour honey into the bread batter and stir in until honey is evenly mixed in and bread batter is uniform in color.
4. Add batter to your prepared loaf pan. Bake for about 40 minutes or until bread is done. When bread is ready, if you apply light pressure to the surface, it should bounce back. Let the bread cool fully before slicing. The bread is best enjoyed soon after it is baked. If you are eating the next day, warm up bread slices before eating.
Notes
This recipe was originally tested with White Lily's self-rising flour which has a lower protein content than some other brands of self-rising flour. Please check the protein content of your flour before starting. If your self-rising flour has 2 grams of protein per 1/4 cup, then you can use the amount stated in the recipe. If your self-rising flour has 3 grams of protein per 1/4 cup, then remove 6 tbsp of the flour from the amount in the recipe and replace with 6 tbsp of cornstarch.
Homemade self-rising flour: If your all purpose flour has 3 grams of protein per 1/4 cup, use the following measurements: Add 2 cups + 10 tbsp all purpose flour, 4.5 tsp baking powder, 6 tbsp cornstarch and 3/4 tsp salt to a bowl. Whisk until evenly combined. If your all purpose flour has 2 grams of protein per 1/4 cup, use the following measurements: Add 3 cups all purpose flour, 4.5 tsp baking powder, and 3/4 tsp salt to a bowl. Whisk until evenly combined.
To properly measure flour, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level off with a knife. Do not directly dip the measuring cup into the flour because this results in too much flour. Use this method of measuring whether you are measuring self-rising flour or measuring all purpose flour to make your own self-rising flour.
Make sure you don't add the honey until the end. If you add it at the beginning, it will stick to the flour and cause it to clump.
Warm up the honey before adding it. This will make it easier to mix into the batter and distribute evenly. If you don't warm it up, it will be thick and sticky and hard to mix in.
This bread is lightly sweetened. It is not meant to be like a cake or dessert.
The bread tastes best the same day it is baked. If you plan on eating it the next day, you should warm up the bread again (in the microwave or a toaster oven) to get the texture back to when it was first baked (it will be more brittle and crumbly if you don't reheat it).
I used one percent low fat milk. While I have not tested any substitutions, I think this bread will also work with milk alternatives like oat milk or almond milk.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1 slice, Calories: 157kcal, Carbohydrates: 35g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 0.3g, Saturated Fat: 0.2g, Sodium: 432mg, Sugar: 8g, NET CARBS: 35
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. This is not a comprehensive list of all the nutrients in the recipe (i.e., does not include vitamins, cholesterol, etc). I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
https://kirbiecravings.com/3-ingredient-honey-bread/
Nice recipe too! 
Works in most recipes.
Much less metallic-tasting than Aspartame...HTH