NEWS: Spice Bread AKA Pain d’Epices
7 October 2008
NEWS : ‘Extra extra, read all about it!!!’ This is the 1st of many short “NEWS” posts, with information on my latest and greatest culinary discoveries.
***NEWS : PAIN D’EPICES (SPICE BREAD)***
This past weekend, in the Halle de Rive, Geneva’s indoor food market, I came across Jean-Jacques Tereins, from Al Terre épicerie, selling traditional pain d’épices (spice bread).
BAKING:What was special about his bread is that it is made à l’ancienne (the old fashioned way), with a recipe dating from the XVIII century. The dough, called pâte-mère (dough mother), is left to rest for several weeks, before being baked at low temperatures for 8 hours, in large terracotta pots!!!
THE BREAD: a very large, moist, 6 kilogram bread, made with 2 types of honey, cinnamon, clove, star anise and ginger. It is divinely delicious , and can be kept & savoured for up to 3 months in the fridge. My slice lasted about 3 minutes…. so I may need to buy another piece or 2 to test this theory!!!
Ingredients:acacia honey, chestnut honey, buckwheat flour, butter, eggs, cinnamon, cloves, star anise (badiane), ginger & salt.
MUSEUM: just outside Strasbourg, in a French town called Gertwiller, there is a pain d’épices museum / shop run by ‘la maison LIPS (circa 1789) “, where the baking of this bread has been a tradition for over 2 centuries.
14 October 2008 at 11:32 am
Wondered what you would eat this spice bread with? thanks
15 October 2008 at 2:09 pm
ASHLEY: this bread is great on its own with a cup of tea or goes nicely with a piece of cheese such as Gruyere