For a lovely fall afternoon tea time, I wanted to make French spice bread again that I made long ago from a recipe I found in Saveur magazine. I made this back in college for bunch of friends around this time of year who really loved French food and I remember getting lot of compliments. What’s not to like about bread made with honey, spices and dried citrus pieces especially in the fall?

Featured Tableware

This tea time fare has been a great excuse to bring out my Japanese lusterware tea set I bought at an antique store. Lusterware was produced in Japan from 1920’s to early 1940’s mainly as export for the US. Iridescent quality is so beautiful in these pieces and until now, it was proudly sitting in one of my cupboards.

My other piece for this occasion is Royal Stafford’s black Asiatic Pheasant. Royal Stafford is one of Britain’s classic manufactory’s and I love the black and white pattern china for fall and winter. I bought my piece from my favorite go-to site for classic china; Replacements.

Pain d’ Epice Ingredients

Rye Flour & Dried Oranges

There are many recipes to Pain d’ Epices and lot of recipes like the one featured in Saveur calls for using all rye flour. I personally favor a mix of organic rye and unbleached flour so the bread doesn’t taste entirely like rye bread.

Traditional spice bread recipe also calls for dried lemon and orange peels but these days it’s hard to find them in stores. So I found a perfect substitute from Trader Joe’s; their sweetened dried orange slices. Just rough chop these orange slices and add to your dough and it will add wonderful citrus flavor to your bread.

Spices

This is spice bread after all and you need several flagrant spices to flavor your bread. I didn’t have all the spices listed in the Saveur recipe, so I went ahead and used spices that I had in my cupboard. I used a combination of ground nutmeg, cinnamon, caraway seeds, ground coriander and ground cloves. You can also use additional spices like star anise, ground ginger and mace.

Making Pain d’ Epices

As you combine your dry ingredients together, you also need to prepare a mixture of honey, sugar and milk over low heat to add to the dough. For me two cups of honey is bit heavy, so I used one cup of honey and half a cup of sugar instead.

You then need to take 1/4 cup of honey/milk mixture into beaten egg yolks whisk it well and pour that back in to the rest of milk and honey mixture. After that, you can slowly pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and mix it together until you get a smooth batter. There’s no need to use electric mixer in this process the dough will be too heavy; wooden spoon will be just fine to mix your ingredients together.

When you have nice smooth batter, pour it in your round buttered cake pan and bake it for 1 hour. I like to brush some honey on top of the bread for nice glaze and additional sweetness. I should of unmolded my bread first to do this, but I got excited when I saw my perfect looking bread and I went ahead and brushed some honey on top while it was still in the cake pan.

When my spice bread was cut and served, it had a perfect combination of spices and sweetness and I had a perfect weekend tea time.

Print Recipe

Pain d’Epices, French Spice Bread

Recipe adapted from Saveur Magazine '98

Prep Time20

Cook Time1

Equipment

7' round cake pan

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached organic flour
2 cups organic rye flour
¼ cup dried sweetened oranges, chopped
1 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tsp baking soda
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 cup organic honey
½ cup sugar
1 cup milk or half and half
½ tbsp softened butter to grease cake pan
1-2 tbsp organic honey to brush on top of baked bread (optional)

Instructions

In a small sauce pan, combine honey, sugar and milk (or half and half ) and simmer over low heat. Whisk the mixture well then take off heat and set it aside.
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large mixing bowl, combine and sift together flour, baking soda and spices (nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, caraway seeds) then stir in dried oranges. Take ¼ cup of honey/milk mixture into beaten egg yolks and whisk together. Combine the honey/milk/egg yolk mixture into the rest of honey/milk mixture. Pour the liquid gradually into the dry ingredients and mix together the ingredients with a wooden spoon until smooth batter forms.
Butter and lightly flour the round cake pan and pour batter into pan and bake for 1 hour. Take bread out of oven, unmold from cake pan and cool on wire cake rack. Brush honey on top of bread for additional sweetness and glaze.

Tea Time with Pain d’ Epices