Pain D'epice (French Spice Bread)

bexfiles's Note:

From a book I borrowed from the library about world breads, with a few amendments from myself and my husband who actually made the loaf the first time. It's quite hard to cut being extremely dense, but very very tasty and more like a cake than bread (other than the density)

• Total Time: 1 hrs 50 mins
• Prep Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 1.0 loaf

• 225 ml honey
• 225 g wholemeal rye flour
• 30 g white sugar
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 30 g ground almonds
• 1 teaspoon ginger peel
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 cloves , ground
• ½ orange, zest of , grated
• ½ lemon, zest of , grated
• milk , and
• sugar , boiled to a syrup for glaze

Directions:

1. Warm and melt the honey by standing the jar in a pan of hot water, measure it into the rye flour in a bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon. Leave, covered for 1 hour for the flour to absorb all the liquid.
2. Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the glaze, and mix with vigour to ensure everything is spread evenly through the dough - this will be very sticky! Knead the dough on a clean work surface for between 5-10 minutes You can dip hands into a bowl of water at intervals to help with the kneading if necessary.
3. Press the dough mixture intpo a well greased 2lb loaf tin. Make sure it's pushed right into the corners.
4. Bake the loaf on the middle shelf for about 35 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. When you have removed it from the oven, brush with glaze and return to oven for a couple of minutes to set the glaze.
5. Let the bread stand in the tin for a few minutes, then invert onto a wire rack. This keeps very well and because it's made using rye it can be better for being left a couple of days before eating. (We never let it wait long though !).