Pain d’épices
Fill your home with the warm, spiced flavours of Alsace this winter with traditional pain d’épices. Cut into shapes and decorate with icing, it’s a fun festive activity to do with the kids
Pain d’épices
- 200 g sugar
- 1 packet vanilla sugar
- 100 g butter
- 300 g honey
- 230 g ground hazelnuts
- 500 g flour
- 3 tbsp gingerbread spice mix
- 5 g candied orange peel
- 5 g candied lemon peel
- 40 g glacé cherries
- 40 g candied angelica
- 4 eggs
- 300 g icing sugar
- 50 ml schnapps
- 2 tsp baking powder
- Melt the butter. Add the sugar, honey, vanilla sugar and spices. Mix well.
- Add the hazelnuts, the chopped candied fruit and the 4 eggs, mixing as you go. Add the baking powder and finally the flour. Stir everything together thoroughly.
- Spread the mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Use a large plastic spatula, as the mixture is quite firm. Smooth the surface evenly. Leave to rest overnight at room temperature.
- The next day, bake for about 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 175°C.
- Allow to cool, then cut the gingerbread into diamonds, rectangles or stars.
- To make the glaze, put the icing sugar into a large bowl with 1 tbsp of schnapps. Add water little by little until the sugar forms a paste.
- Brush the glaze over the gingerbread with a pastry brush and leave to dry. Or if you’re feeling creative, pipe it into patterns.
If you can’t find pre-made gingerbread spice mix, combine 3½ tsp ground cinnamon, 3½ tsp ground ginger and 2 tsp mixed spice instead.
If you can’t find vanilla sugar, combine 2 tsp caster sugar with ½ tsp vanilla extract before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.
The gingerbread will keep in a tin for up to a month (if you can resist eating it!).
Lead photo credit : Shutterstock
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