Recipe for mannele, the brioche men of St Nicholas’ Day
Would you like to celebrate Saint Nicholas too? You can't do it properly without a recipe for mannele in Alsace! Here's my recipe for homemade.
A traditional St Nicholas recipe
For those of you who don’t know, Saint-Nicolas is the little gourmet day for people living in Eastern France, to tide them over until Christmas (if you want more details on the origins of this holiday, take a look here).
On December 6, St. Nicholas’ Day, it’s customary to make mannele (mannala/manala), brioche-coated men who can be eaten for breakfast or a snack, and give them to well-behaved children.
In fact, in Alsace, every occasion is a good excuse to enjoy mannele: you take some to your colleagues at work, to your friends, you eat one for a snack… And for most of the Advent season, just like bredele!
Mannele, manele, manala, mannala or Jean Bonhomme?
It all depends on where you are in Alsace or Franche-ComtĂ©! Being from the Lower Rhine, I call them mannele (pronounced männele), but in the Upper Rhine, we say manala(mannala). In Franche-ComtĂ©, they’re called “Jean Bonhomme”. But the main thing is that they’re good, right?
Our recipe
Mannele, the brioche men of St Nicholas' Day
Ustensiles
- a "little man" cookie cutter (optional)
Ingredients
- 500 gr flour
- 15 cl warm milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 sachet of express baker's yeast
- 150 gr soft butter
- 80 gr fine sugar
- 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
- 1 yellow + a little milk for gilding
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, eggs, softened butter, baking powder and warm milk. Knead until dough is elastic. This may take 10-15 minutes.
- Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled in volume.
- Scoop out balls of dough weighing around 80g, shape them on non-stick baking sheets (or baking parchment), and make cuts with scissors (or a knife) to form the arms and legs of the mannele (or use your own cookie cutter if you prefer). Tip: keep the figures well apart, because if they're too close together on the plate, they'll stick together.
- Let double in volume again when lukewarm.
- Preheat the oven to medium (thermostat 6/180°C), brown with the egg yolk+milk mixture and bake for approx. 20-25 min (watch).
Notes
