Its ingredients, according to Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (1694), were "rye flour, honey and spices".

According to Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, the commercial production of pain d'épices was a specialty of Dijon and Reims, based on a recipe of a pastry cook from ancient grec and made popular when Charles VII and his mistress Agnes Sorel expressed their liking for it.

[2] The pain d'épices of Dijon outpaced its older competitors in the Napoleonic era, and the bread is now considered one of the specialties of that city.

Pain d'épices was originally a sourdough bread without added leavening; it was left in a wooden trough to rest in a cool place for months, during which the honeyed rye flour experienced fermentation.

La Collective des Biscuits et Gâteaux de France reserves the name pain d'épices pur miel (French for 'pure honey spice bread') for pain d'épices sweetened only with honey.