Pain d’epices

Pain d’épices is a bread-cake cross and gets deliciously sticky after sitting on the counter overnight and improves with age. This one has a wonderfully complex flavour with both spelt and rye flour, the warm spices, and honey.

Calling it French gingerbread is a misnomer, as we generally associate gingerbread with cookies, but it is spiced very similarly to gingerbread or lebkuchen or speculaas. Nutmeg, ground ginger, cinnamon, and a touch of cloves are used in this version, alongside orange zest and juice for a bit of brightness.

This recipe was adapted from one I used to make as a small child, but that book burned years ago and I can’t remember what it was called now. Of course the original used butter, eggs, etc. so it is a very loose adaptation – but it was my first introduction to pain d’épices.

Using full-fat coconut milk allows for the honey in the loaf to be reduced slightly and the coconut flavour isn’t noticeable.

Scroll to the bottom of the post or click “skip to recipe” above to see the recipe card with full ingredient measurements and instructions.

Ingredients

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and grease or line a smaller baking tin (mine is 22.5×9.5cm or 9×3 1/4 in.).

In a large bowl, whisk together the spelt flour, rye flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, vanilla (if powder), cloves, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

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In another bowl, whisk the coconut milk, honey, oil, orange juice, and orange zest. If using vanilla extract, add it as well. If your coconut milk is on the harder side, you may want to blend instead – I used an immersion blender. This will likely curdle but that’s fine.

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Add the coconut milk mixture to the large bowl and use a wooden spoon to mix until just combined. Don’t over mix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared baking tin and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until golden in colour and a skewer inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean.

Leave the loaf in the tin for ten minutes before removing to cool fully on a rack. Cool completely before wrapping in beeswax wrap or placing it into an airtight container to rest overnight. Slice and serve the following day.

Tips and Notes

Wrapping the bread and letting it rest overnight before eating is a crucial step. The honey works through the loaf, making for a dense, sweet slice.

Full-fat milk is important. A lighter milk, like oat milk or even reduced fat coconut milk, will result in a dry and crumbly loaf. This is much the same as my coconut bread in that the fat content in the milk is integral to the success of the bread – it partially replaces the eggs.

A smaller loaf tin is better here, but a regular one works too. Mine is 9.5 x 22.5cm and it’s perfect here. When tested in my larger tin it’s still good, but doesn’t look quite as nice.

This makes a wonderful gift if you feel like dropping a food gift on someone’s doorstep. Wrapped up in a pretty tea towel or something like that for an eco-friendly double gift – reusable fabric as wrapping paper, tea towel plus homemade treat.

Substitutions

I have no idea if this recipe works without honey to make it vegan. It might, but I haven’t tested and can’t provide a recommendation. I think it would probably ruin the texture to use a different sweetener.

You can use plain white flour in place of the light spelt if preferred. Whole wheat flour can be subbed for rye, or use all plain flour.

Alter the spices based on your preference. Cardamom would be nice in place of cloves, for example.

More Recipes with Honey

Honey and Oat Spelt Sourdough
Honey Lemon Curd
Honey Oatmeal Cookies
Honey Oat Bread
Shaved Brussels Sprouts Quinoa Salad

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This post was originally published in December 2014. It has been updated with slight changes to the recipe, new text, and new photographs, as of December 2020.