Julia Child - Un Par Un: PAIN D'EPICES 🌞 [View all]

[justaprogressive]

*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!