Chocolate gingerbread
This recipe is for a 'pain d'épice' [spice bread] type of gingerbread - a French classic. Each country has its own version of gingerbread, but I love the French one best. I wanted to do something a bit different for a special tea, as I'd invited the French conversation group I belong to. I decided to push the boat out, so instead of making just a normal cake looking gingerbread, I made it into a sort of millefeuille version, and added chocolate to it. The basic recipe came from my French friend's mother, and unlike our English gingerbread, it uses several spices. It's not difficult to make, but making it into a millefeuille was a bit of a faff! You need: 100g of dark chocolate 100g of honey *200ml cold double cream 130g flour [my friend's Mum used rye flour but I didn't] 11/2tspns baking powder 2 tspns vanilla sugar 20g icing sugar for the spices: 1 tspn of cinnamon, 1/2 tspn ground ginger, 1 tpsn freshly grated nutmeg and 1 star anise [