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Desserts

Pain d’Épices (French Honey Spice Bread)

Pain d'épices is a honey and spice cake from northern Europe. One of the easiest Christmas desserts to make, perfect with a cup of tea.
Recipe Pain d’Épices (French Honey Spice Bread)
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Preparation 15 minutes
  • Cooking 50 minutes
  • Servings for 6 people

Pain d’épices, also known as Spice Bread, is a traditional recipe from northern Europe and France. Usually made for the Christmas holidays, it has its roots in the trade with China around the 10th century. It was there, in fact, that a spiced bread was made for the first time, and it has since become one of the most fragrant desserts made in Europe: Pain d’épices, of course.

Sweet Spice Bread is made with equal amounts of Flour and Honey and flavored with lots of spices: Cinnamon above all, but also Ginger, Cloves, Nutmeg and Vanilla. Every family has its own recipe, though, so feel free to adapt ours to your taste. What matters is getting a fragrant Sweet Spiced Bread, just like Pain d’épices made with the Original Recipe.

If you love spiced desserts, you really should try one of the great Christmas classics, Gingerbread Cookies, also known as gingerbread men, or the fragrant Gingerbread Cupcakes. Or, still looking at “Nordic” recipes, Lebkuchen, Spiced Christmas Cookies might be just what you need.

Ingredients for 6 people

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Method

  1. To make Pain d’Épices with the original recipe, start by melting the honey in the very hot milk to soften it.
    Pain d'Épices, step 1: honey melting in hot milk
  2. Put the flour, spices, vanillin and salt in a bowl and slowly pour in the honey melted with the milk, stirring with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth batter.
    Pain d'Épices, step 2: flour, spices and the honey and milk mixture stirred with a wooden spoon
  3. Lastly, add the baking powder and give it one last quick stir.
  4. Pour the batter into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and bake at 160 °C (325 °F) for about 50 minutes. Before taking it out of the oven, always do the toothpick test: inserted in the center of the cake, it should come out completely dry.
    Pain d'Épices, step 4: the spice bread in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper
  5. Let the cake cool completely before removing it from the pan and serving. Finally, remember to download our App with exclusive content and fewer ads!

Variations and Alternatives

As mentioned in the introduction, you can vary and adjust the amounts of the spices. For an extra touch, for example, add a pinch of allspice or a little ground cardamom: you’ll get a truly outstanding Pain d’épices.

Tips

Choose a top-quality honey with a runny consistency: both are essential for the cake to turn out perfectly.

Storage

Pain d’épices keeps under a cake dome for 4-5 days.

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