French Gingerbread Loaf Recipe

This delicious French gingerbread loaf recipe is perfect to make all year round. This gingerbread baked as little loaves full of festive flavors of dark rum and spice blend makes a great edible gift during holidays.

Last year, I tried to make this gingerbread during Christmas time, but I did not have a chance to post its recipe.

Well, I was too busy with Gingerbread Christmas Cookie Ornaments to decorate the Christmas tree.

So, I was waiting for this festive season to make gingerbread again; although, I must admit that this flavorful loaf is perfect for serving breakfast, a snack, or a dessert all year round.

What I love the most about the French gingerbread recipe is how our home smells during its baking.

I think that even our neighbors get into a festive spirit, smelling the gingerbread flavors and aromas around the house.

Jump to:

• What is French gingerbread?
• Gingerbread vs. gingerbread cake
• French Gingerbread recipe
• The best flour to make gingerbread
• How to serve French gingerbread
• Why this loaf recipe works
• Ingredients
• How to make French gingerbread
• Expert tips
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Love loaf cakes? Try these next!
• Recipe
• Comments

What is French gingerbread?

French gingerbread, called pain d’épices in French, is a soft and flavorful loaf cake made with a blend of spices.

Gingerbread recipes vary across France: most of them contain cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, pepper, or cloves.

Some of the cakes are made with only anise, but the "most authentic recipe doesn't contain any ginger."

French gingerbread is egg-free which is perfect for those who have egg allergy.

And the last distinguishing thing is that it is made with sugar and honey to give the cake its special taste.

Gingerbread vs. gingerbread cake

Gingerbread is mostly referred to as French pain d'épices, a loaf made with honey and spice blend. It does not contain ginger, and its texture is somewhat dry.

Gingerbread cake or ginger cake is an American invention made with treacle or molasses and spices, including ginger. Its texture is moist.

French Gingerbread recipe

I adapted the gingerbread recipe created by the Alsatian baker Eric Kayser who comes from three generations of bakers. 

He is an owner of 28 bakeries in Paris, France, and 200 bakeries around the world. 

Each time I bake this cake, I question myself if I should go with a plain cake or dress it up.

The loaf has beautiful velvety slices full of dried fruit that make each slice impressive.

The loaf is already complete without decorations, but I decorated it with crumbled speculoos cookies and overlapping syrupy dried fruit to make it look more festive. This colorful final touch makes gingerbread loaf stunning!

By the way, have you ever experienced gingerbread cravings in time besides the holidays? If the answer is yes, you should make it throughout the year.

Whenever you feel like baking this warmly spiced treat, let's expand the Christmas-only tradition of baking gingerbread. Although cutting a gingerbread Christmas tree is fun!

The best flour to make gingerbread

The traditional gingerbread recipe uses whole wheat flour. However, white flour, buckwheat flour, or rye flour are also widely used for this purpose.

To make gingerbread more compact, you should choose ray flour. You might decide to experiment with flours to get different textures of the loaf. Since gingerbread is sweet, it is not recommended to use chestnut flour. 

To make a gluten-free gingerbread, replace flour indicated in a recipe with rice flour or chestnut flour. 

In the latter case, reduce the amount of honey and sugar because chestnut flour is a sweet type of flour.

How to serve French gingerbread

The French love to slice gingerbread loaf and serve it for breakfast or a snack throughout the day.

You can also try the French way to combine sweet gingerbread with savory dishes. Add gingerbread croutons to pumpkin soup and enjoy. Or place foie gras on a gingerbread toast and serve with fig jam.

If you want to go fancy, serve gingerbread with Alsatian lager, such as Fischer, that will magnify honey and spices' flavors.

Why this loaf recipe works

1. This loaf cake is easy to make even for a beginner baker.
2. The syrup made one day ahead is intensely spiced and fully infused with warm flavors.
3. The cake is loaded with dried fruit that accentuates each slice.
4. Baked as little loaves, this gingerbread makes a perfect gift during the holiday season.

Ingredients

Here is a quick overview of what ingredients you will need. Follow the full recipe below for detailed amounts and instructions. I recommend making this recipe as written for the best results. 

Honey: use your favorite honey to make the loaf. For a gourmet version, switch honey for date syrup, or maple syrup.

Sugar: the recipe calls for granulated or caster sugar.

Spices: use whole star anise, cinnamon sticks, and ground allspice.

Water: it is used to make the sugar/honey syrup.

Flour: use all-purpose four for the recipe or experiment with other types of flour.

Corn starch: you can easily replace it with potato starch.

Dark rum: it brings irresistible flavor to the cake.

Baking powder: use fresh aluminum-free baking powder here.

Dried fruits: use dried apricots, dried cranberries, prunes, or experiment with other dried fruits and make your own combination.

Slivered almonds: you can replace slivered almonds with blanched almonds if you prefer.

Speculoos cookies: use store-bought cookies for the cake decoration; although, this step is optional.

Apricot jam: use thick apricot jam for the better adherence of speculoos cookies' crumbs.

Medjool dates and raisins: they are used to decorate the top of the gingerbread loaf. Fell free to experiment with other fruits of your choice.

How to make French gingerbread

To make the syrup, pour water, honey, sugar, add cinnamon sticks, whole star anise, and ground allspice in a saucepan (photo 1).

Bring to a boil while mixing. Remove the saucepan from the heat (photo 2), cover with plastic film, and let infuse at room temperature for 24 hours.

The next day, preheat the oven to 320 F/ 160 C. To make the dough, mix flour, corn starch, and baking powder in a bowl.

Drain the syrup with a colander and discard spices. Add rum to the syrup and mix. Stir dry ingredients into the wet mixture and combine with a hand whisk (photo 3).

Add whole prunes, dried apricots, dried cranberries, and slivered almonds to the mixture and combine (photo 4).

Pour the preparation in a buttered nonstick loaf pan or a silicone loaf pan, filling up to three quarters (photo 5).

Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Check the loaf readiness with a toothpick: if it comes out dry, gingerbread is ready (photo 6).

To decorate the loaf, place speculoos cookies in a food processor and crush to get crumbs.

Heat apricot jam in a microwave and spread it all over gingerbread, using a silicone brush (photo 7). Generously sprinkle the loaf's sides with crumbled speculoos cookies.

Dip each dried fruit in a heated apricot jam, shake off the excess jam, arrange prunes, dried apricots, Medjool dates, and raisins on top, overlapping each other. Fill the gaps between fruit with crumbled cookies (photo 8). 

Expert tips

1. Adjust the baking time and test the loaf/loaves for readiness with a toothpick, if you use small loaf pans.
2. Arrange whole star anise and cinnamon sticks on top of the loaf for additional decoration.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Recipe

The nutrition information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator and is intended for informational purposes only and should be used as a general guideline. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should independently verify it using your preferred tool. Please, read the disclaimers in our Privacy Policy.

The recipe was adapted from the Video Masterclass of Eric Kayser's bakery. It was originally published on December 11, 2019. The recipe has been revised to include improved content. All posted pictures are mine.