Pain d'Epices (French Gingerbread)

Pain d'Epices

I have been a (happy) Karang Guni in the past week. Brother C and CL are moving back to Penang and have been passing me part of their WW3 food stock. The stuff they didn't want to/couldn't bring back. I am still reeling from what their small kitchen contained. Endless trove of food and household wares. A bit like the magic porridge pot.

A few jars of honey were among the stuff. It is a relief to know that I'm not alone in this world when it comes to stocking up. Besides the (great) fear of running out, I think I often end up stocking up unwittingly, because :

1. I have forgotten that I already have the item;


2. I know I have it but when I needed it I couldn't find it;


3. There was an offer that I couldn't resist.

Unfortunately I do not have my dream kitchen yet. My fridge and freezer are both tiny, I do not have enough cupboard space in what could be considered a spacious kitchen. All my own stuff are packed in stacked-up Ikea boxes. Brother C's offering is now lying around in plastic bags. Which would be normal in almost any Asian home - but a big no-no in an European one. The ang mohs too like their appearances.

So I have to start exercising some imagination as to how I may start to use up the extra foodstuff. Am glad to say that the first attempt has been very easy : Pain d'épices.

I guess it helps that I love pain d'épices and that we're nearing Christmas when it is most often consumed. This French cake/bread is similar to Gingerbread though not as hard or compact. And from what I know, it may even have originated from the Chinese. Come to think of it, at times when my mom prayed and offered food to the Gods, we would have this brown sweet and spicy cake that often comes to my mind when I eat the pain d'épices.

Traditionally the pain d'épices would require days, weeks and even months to ferment (just the flour and honey) but with the discovery of instant yeast one can bake the cake immediately. It wouldn't be as rich as the traditional cake that we find e.g. in Alsace though.

Pain d'épices (a non-traditional quick and easy recipe) :

350g Acacia Honey (preferably)

100g Butter

250g Flour

1 packet of Instant Yeast

50g Ground Almonds

10g Bicarbonate of Soda

1/2 Tsp each of Ground Cinnamon, Ginger, Green Anis, Nutmeg

1/4 Tsp each of Ground Cloves, Cardamom, Cumin

A pinch of Salt

2 Eggs

Sift the flour with the instant yeast into a mixing bowl. Add in the ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda, ground spices and salt. Mix well.

Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture. In a pot melt the butter and stir in the honey. Remove the pot from fire when the mixture starts to boil. Pour it into the flour. Mix well. (If you like the gingerbread really really sweet, dissolve some brown sugar in the honey)

Add the eggs into the flour-honey mixture one at a time.

Pour the smooth cake mixture into an oiled 25x7 cm bread tin. Bake for 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 170ºC, then cover the bread tin with aluminum foil and continue baking for another 30 minutes at 150ºC.

The pain d'épices is best eaten after being cooled overnight. But nobody could really wait, I think we finished half of it almost immediately. And I like eating foie gras with it, Baby Girl turns 6 on Tuesday, that may provide a good excuse to open a jar of the good stuff. :-)