Pain d'épices / Spice bread

On a recent trip back to France I had the good fortune of being given this old recipe for "pain d'épices" (spice bread). As a child growing up in France we would come home from school and as a snack we would often have a couple of slices of this cake-like bread lathered with butter. I always wanted to find the recipe and rekindle with my childhood memories. So when I was visiting my home town open air market I came upon the beekeeper's stall and they were also selling this delicious bread and the lady very kindly gave me her recipe that she has been making for a number of decades. Upon returning to the US I started making it and it tastes exactly as I remembered. So I decided I couldn't keep this little treasure for myself and started making it for clients. If you want to sample another one of France's tradition I will happily make it for you.

Place your order at: petitechefanne@gmail.com

Croquembouche

I was very fortunate to make a very traditional French wedding dessert for my friend's wedding last week, a Croquembouche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquembouche).

Chandeleur

Today in France we celebrate "la chandeleur", another tradition where food is at the centerpiece, in this case we are talking about crêpes.

As well as traditions linked to food we also have a lot of sayings, like this one: "Quand la Chandeleur est claire, l'hiver est par derriere; Chandeleur couverte, quarante jours de perte!" (If February 2 is clear, no more winter to fear; if the Chandeleur is overcast, forty days winter to last).

See a more in depth explanation of this tradition here.

Here is the CREPES recipe we have used in our family when I grew up:

For about 20 crêpes 9” diameter

Ingredients

1 ¾ cup All Purpose Flour 250 gr

2 Egg 2

2 cups Milk 500 ml

1 Tbsp Sugar 1 Tbsp

1 pinch Salt

Flavour with 1 Tbsp Rum or Kirsch or Orange flower water or/& vanilla

Alternate recipe: substitute half of the milk with a light blonde beer, it will make for lighter crêpes

Method

In a bowl measure the flour, slowly add the milk and whisk until you obtain a smooth batter without lumps, then add the eggs and continue whipping.

Then add the sugar, salt and flavouring of choice.

Mix until all combined and no lumps.

Rest for at least 1 hour.

Pour a ladle full of batter into a preheated oiled crêpes pan (non stick if possible), swirling the pan to coat the bottom evenly with batter.

Cook over medium heat a minute or so, until the sides of the crêpe come loose from the bottom of the pan, turn over for half a min or so and set aside on a plate placed over a pan of hot water and cover with plastic wrap to keep the crêpes warm, repeat until all the batter is gone.

Serve with various fillings.

Filling suggestions

Sugar, lemon, jam, chocolate, cooked banana and orange…