Spice Bread

By corlear

‘Pain d’épices’ originated in Flanders with the spice trade, but has long been a speciality of Dijon, where as ‘gâteau ducal’ it was served at all Burgundian feasts. The original recipe is an odd one, containing only honey, spices, rye flour and a raising agent. The bread easily forms a hard crust, and in the last century was baked in special wooden moulds to keep it moist. Nowadays a lining of newspaper in the pan serves the same purpose. Without the spices and honey, this recipe gives ‘pain de seigle’ — simple rye bread.

Ingredients

• 21/4 cups rye flour
• 13/4 cups all purpose flour, more if needed
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp aniseed
• 1 2/3 cups lukewarm water
• l1/2 cakes fresh yeast OR l packages dry yeast
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 cup honey
• 11/2 tsp ground ginger
• 11/2 tsp ground allspice
• 9 x 5 x 4 in loaf pan

Details

Servings 8

Preparation

Step 1

Put both the flours, the salt and aniseed into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the lukewarm water. Crumble the yeast over the water, add the brown sugar and let stand for 5 minutes or until dissolved.

Gradually draw in the flour to make a smooth dough; add more flour if necessary to obtain a dough that is soft and slightly sticky.

Turn the dough out on to a floured board and knead it for 5—10 minutes or until smooth and elastic, working in more flour as necessary to prevent the dough from sticking to the board. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and turn the dough over so the top is oiled. Cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-l½ hours or until doubled in bulk. Line the pan with several thicknesses of newspaper and finally with a layer of greaseproof/parchment paper or foil. Set the oven at low (160°C/320°F).

Knead the risen dough lightly to knock out the air; then work in the honey, ground ginger and allspice. Beat the dough for 5 minutes — it will be very sticky. Spoon it into the loaf pan, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes—1 hour or until almost doubled in bulk. The dough should reach the top of the pan.

Bake in the heated oven for 3-3½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the bread comes out clean. If the top of the bread browns too quickly, cover it with foil.

Let cool in the pan before turning out. Wrap the bread tightly in foil or plastic wrap and keep a few days so it becomes moist before serving.