Baking with Dorie: Pierre Herme's Fruit and Spice Loaf

This week's Baking with Dorie recipe on Serious Eats is one that's perfect for the holidays:  a type of pain d'epices, or honey cake, from Parisian pastry wizard Pierre Herme.  While it's not at all like my chocolate-gingerbread (last week's recipe),  there's something about the loaf that makes me think it's my American gingerbread's long-lost French cousin. 

Pain d'epices is a holiday must in France and Pierre's, not surprisingly, is terrific.  If you make it -- and I hope you will -- try to make it the day before you want to serve it:  The flavors really come into their own after a day's rest under wraps.

TYPO ALERT:  While it may be changed by now, there was a typo in the original recipe.  The correct amount for the water, the first ingredient is:  3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water.  I'm very sorry.

Comments

[Dorie]

Julie and others - even with the extra water, the pain d'epices dough won't be a push-over to handle. It really is a bready dough and it takes some energy to add the fruit. Actually, it's nothing like a muffin. And it doesn't bake into a moist cake - it's more a bread. Serving it with cheese sounds perfect!

[Julie]

Oh my. 3/4 of a cup of water instead of 1/4 cup. I made this early today, before the recipe was changed. I was just about to write and tell you that although it was very good, I couldn't figure out why the dough was so dry. It wasn't at all like muffin batter, but more like stiff bread dough -- almost impossible to mix the fruits and nuts in, and it baked up very crumbly -- I figured that I just needed to let it ripen, but I wanted to ask and see if I'd done something wrong. Ah well.

To be honest, it's still very delicious. I served it as part of a family tea, along with hot mulled wine, tiny open-faced sandwiches, and my own chocolate/walnut Torte Orzechowy (http://fingerineverypie.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/12/nuttiness-as-pr.html).

I served the pain d'epices with aged Vermont cheddar cheese, which was a great pairing.

Thanks for the recipe -- I'll try it again with the correction, which I'm sure will make it easier to handle. But again, it's still simply delectable.

Happy New Year, and many thanks for the past year, during which you've shared so much deliciousness with your readers.

Julie

[bambina]

Hi Dorie. I love your blog and your books. And I adore Pierre Herme. In fact, I mentioned you both in my blog post yesterday. Have a flavorful new year!

[Marni]

I absolutely LOVED the chocolate gingerbread from last week. I will have to try this too!