Gwenn - I found a recipe in French, which I'll post. How you'll get it translated is up to you. =gg= I looked in my copy of Larouse Gastronomique and here's what it says, "Pain-- the word pain is a cullinary term which applies to dishes, served cold or hot, made of a forcemeat placed in a special mould and poached in a bain-marie, it the case of a dish being served hot, and set in a mould, lined with aspic jelly and chilled, in the cae of a dish being served cold.
"This type of entree was very popular in old culinary practice but is not done much nowadays. It has been replacee by mousses, which are also prepared hot or cold."
Then under bread it says "Pain" and describes bread, but it gives no recipe for Pain d epice.

I have another French cookbook and I found a recipe for Pain d'epice au miel which is a honey spice bread but it has no anise in it. Epice means spice in French so any spice could be a Pain d'epice. At any rate, I don't think this recipe is what you're looking for as it has chopped candied fruit peel in it and allspice, ginger and cinnamon. I'll keep looking and here is the French recipe. At least it has anise in it. :)

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.04

Title: Le pain d'epices de Lucerne
Categories: Patisserie, Biscuit, Suisse
Yield: 1 biscuit

250 ml Creme
5 tb Miel
150 g Sucre
2 tb Citronat
2 tb Orangeat
1/2 ts Canelle; Moulue
1/2 ts Anis; moulu
1 ds Girofle; moulu
1 ds Muscade; moulue
1 pn ;Sel
500 g Farine
1 ts Poudre a lever
250 ml Lait
Miel; pour glacer

MMMMM---------------------------SOURCE--------------------------------
-- D'apres: Fritz J. Oberli
-- Das Kochbuch aus der
-- Innerschweiz, 1978
-- ISBN 3-88117-064-2
-- traduit par Rene Gagnaux

Battre la creme, mais pas trop ferme, ajouter le miel, le sucre.
Incorporer ensuite le citronat, l'orangeat, les epices ainsi que le
sel. Melanger la poudre a lever avec la farine, incorporer. Terminer
avec le lait, de maniere a obtenir une pate epaisse, mais encore un
peu liquide.

En remplir un moule a manque beurre, cuire au four prechauffe a 200 oC
pendant 45 a 60 minutes.

Pendant que le pain d'epices est encore chaud, en glacer la surface
avec du miel.

MMMMM

--
Salut ,
Rene
Cooking FOR ?! I'm not cooking FOR anybody ! I'm just having fun !!

Looking at this recipe, I'm not so sure the one I have is off, except for the anise. This one seems to have lemon and orange peel in it. So here goes:
From "La Cuisine - The Complete Book of French Cooking" ISBN 0-8317-5406-0
Pa d'epice au miel (Honey Spice Bread)
1/2 cu honey
1/4 cup butter
1 cup Brown sugar
salt
3 cups flour
1 egg
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 cup finely chopped candied peel (lemon and orange)
1 cup flaked almonds (optional)
3 Tbl. milk
1/2 cup sugar

1. Heat the honey, butter, brown sugar and a pinch of salt in a a pan.
2. Sift he flour into a mixing bowl. Add the honey mixture and stir to give a thick paste. Cool until lukewarm, then add the egg, baking powder, allspice, ginger and cinnamon.
3. Add the candied fruit. Stir thoroughly, then leave to stand for 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350-deg. F.
5. Line a 10x6-inch loaf pan with buttered wqax [greaseproof] paper and sprinkle with the flaked almonds, if liked. Pour the batter into the pan.
6. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the spice bread is golden brown. The loaf is cooked when the point of a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Reduce the oven temp to 325-deg. F.
7. Mix the milk with the sugar and brush over the loaf. Return to the oven for a few minutes to glaze.
8. Remove the bread from the pan immediately it comes out of the oven and leave to cool.

The one in French says something about glazing it and baking it at 200-deg. C. for 45 minutes, my recipe says it should be baked at 160-deg. C. so the two could be very close. Mine calls for 300 g. of flour and this one for 500 g. At any rate, it's similar but not the same. :)