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Gateau D'Epice, or French Gingerbread
Pound a quarter of a pod of vanilla with a dessert-spoonful of brandy. Stir it into half a pound of treacle, and put it into a saucepan with a quarter of a pound of butter, half an ounce of powdered cinnamon, half an ounce of ground ginger, an ounce of candied lemon, orange, and citron together, cut into thin slices, and a pinch of salt. Let these simmer gently for five or six minutes, stirring all the time, then pour the mixture into a bowl, and, when cool, add as much finely-sifted flour as will make it into a solid batter. Bake in a slow oven on buttered tins, in small rounds, placed at a little distance from each other. Time to bake, three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. per pound.
A stiff, unleavened spice dough closer to a hard gingerbread biscuit than to cake. The recipe leaves the flour quantity to the cook, which is the one thing worth thinking about before you start.
- Treacle means molassesHalf a pound is about 2/3 cup by volume. Black treacle or unsulphured molasses both work; golden syrup will give a paler, blander result and lose the characteristic edge.
- The flour is undefined"As much finely-sifted flour as will make it into a solid batter" is genuinely open. Expect somewhere in the region of 2 to 2 1/2 cups of plain flour for this quantity of treacle and butter, added gradually until the mass holds its shape on a spoon rather than pours.
- Slow oven300F (150C). At that heat small rounds will be dry and firm rather than soft-centred, which is the intended texture.
- Check well before the stated timeThree-quarters of an hour suits thick, generously sized rounds. Modern cookie-sized pieces will be done in 20 to 30 minutes; molasses doughs scorch on the base without looking dark on top.
- No leaveningThere is no saleratus, soda or baking powder here, so the rounds will not rise or spread much. Shape them as you want them to finish, and keep the spacing the recipe asks for since the butter still slumps a little.
- Vanilla pod and brandyA quarter of a vanilla bean pounded in a mortar with a dessertspoon (about 2 teaspoons) of brandy. Splitting the pod, scraping the seeds and steeping them briefly in the brandy achieves the same thing with less work; 1/2 teaspoon of extract is an acceptable substitute.
- Candied fruitAn ounce total of candied lemon, orange and citron peel, sliced thin. Supermarket mixed peel is already chopped fine and will do, though whole candied citron slices give better texture and are worth seeking out.
- Cinnamon and gingerHalf an ounce of each is roughly 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon and 2 of ground ginger, which is a heavy hand by modern standards and deliberate. Buy fresh ground spice; old jars simply taste dusty at this proportion.
- YieldNot stated. With the flour added the mixture comes to roughly a pound and a half of dough, which might give something in the region of 20 to 24 small rounds. They keep in a tin and will soften as they age.
Gâteau d'épice is a name for pain d'épices, the French spice bread generally traced to the honey-and-rye cakes of medieval northern Europe and long associated with Dijon and Reims, where guilds of pain d'épiciers are said to have once regulated its making. The traditional loaf leans on honey and rye flour; this version substitutes treacle and wheat flour and bakes the mixture as small hard rounds rather than a loaf, closer in spirit to a British gingerbread nut. Its heavy dose of cinnamon, ginger and candied citron reflects a period when imported spice and preserved peel had become cheap enough for ordinary baking.