Pain D'epice (French Spice Bread)
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)
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INGREDIENTS
Nutrition- 225ml honey
- 225g wholemeal rye flour
- 30
- 1⁄2teaspoon baking powder
- 1⁄2teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 30g ground almonds
- 1teaspoon ginger peel
- 2teaspoons fennel seeds
- 1⁄2teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 12
- 1⁄2
- 1⁄2
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DIRECTIONS
- 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.
- 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.
- Press the dough mixture intpo a well greased 2lb loaf tin. Make sure it's pushed right into the corners.
- 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.
- 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 !).
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