Mecoulin di Cogne · Mecoulin
Valle d'Aosta · dolce · serves 10 · 420 min total · medium
The Christmas brioche of Cogne, a stone village deep in the Gran Paradiso. The mecoulin is the Aostan answer to panettone — taller, denser, soaked through with génépy-marinated sultanas and made with the rich butter of the alpine pastures. Sliced thick and eaten with the family's own honey on Christmas morning, after Mass at the Romanesque church of Sant'Orso.
Ingredients
- 500 g strong 00 flour
- 15 g fresh yeast
- 200 ml warm full-fat milk
- 120 g sugar
- 150 g soft alpine butter
- 1 egg egg
- 2 yolks egg yolks
- 200 g sultanas, soaked in génépy or grappa
- 1 pinch pinch of salt
- 1 lemon lemon zest
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 yolk egg yolk for brushing
Method
- Dissolve yeast in warm milk with a spoon of sugar. Stand 10 minutes until foamy.
- Mix flour with remaining sugar, salt, lemon zest, vanilla. Add the milk-yeast, egg, yolks. Knead 12 minutes — by the end the dough should slap cleanly off the bowl.
- Work in the soft butter a tablespoon at a time, kneading until each is absorbed before adding the next. The dough becomes silky and elastic.
- Drain the sultanas, pat dry, dust with a spoon of flour. Fold into the dough.
- First rise: cover, 3 hours in a warm spot — until tripled. (In Cogne, the dough goes by the wood-fired stove.)
- Knock back gently. Shape into a single tall round loaf — the mecoulin is a round, not a ring, sometimes 20 cm across and 10 cm tall.
- Place on a lined baking sheet or in a deep round tin. Cover, second rise 1.5 hours, until visibly puffed.
- Brush with egg yolk thinned with milk. With sharp scissors, snip a cross in the top.
- Bake at 175°C (350°F) for 45–55 minutes — deep gold, hollow-sounding underneath. If the top darkens, tent with foil.
- Cool on a rack. Cut thick wedges. Traditional: thick slice spread with mountain butter and a spoon of honey.