A Guest Post, Mannele- Alsace Christmas Cookies
I have mentioned before (on more than one occasion) that I am a Air bnb host. One of the great things about doing this is the people I meet. One of my guests who lives in France happens to be a food blogger and EXTREMELY talented animator. Ariana and her partner/friend Lucie have the beautiful blog Cosmic Tomatoes between these two very talented ladies we are presented with delicious recipes and brilliant animated art work. I was so happy to meet and get to know her while she stayed with me, she said that their collaboration is a happy marriage of art and food, Ariana is the artist and Lucie the recipe developer. The yeasted Holiday cookie is a Christmas tradition in the Alsace region of France, Mannele/Mannala is probably much like the cut out sugar cookies here in the US or the ever popular gingerbread people. I hope you enjoy this guest post from our friends and neighbors in France. I follow Ariana’s blog she is also on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and I am loving the Advent calendar they are working on. Show Ariana some love and give both Ariana and Lucie a warm welcome. Take it away Ariana….
In Alsace starting from December 6th this brioche-man is offered to children by men disguised as Saint Nicholas. This is in fact a simplified representation of Saint Nicolas that can be found in all Alsatian bakeries during the holidays …
ingredients
. 1 kg flour
. 20 g salt
. 150g sugar
. 40 g yeast
. 2 eggs
. 45 cl milk
. 250 g butter
. 2 egg yolk
. chocolate chips or raisins
1/ Mix flour, salt, sugar, yeast, milk and eggs.
2/ Beat for 5 minutes at low speed, then the second speed for 6-8 minutes until you get an elastic dough.
3/ Add the butter and start kneading until it is incorporated.
4 / Let the dough rest for 1 hour in ambient air, covered with a plastic film.
5/ Separate pieces of 70g from the dough and shape little men (or any other creature you wish to). Let them rest for another hour.
6 / Cover the Manneles with eggs yolks and decorate them with chocolate chips or raisins.
7 / Bake at 180 ° C for about 15 minutes.
apuginthekitchen 
What a lovely work out up by both of them together. I am in love with the animation of the recipe! Fantatsic!! These cookies sound delicious and enjoyed reading short note about these brioche cookie men! 😊
Isn’t it great, both the recipe and the animation. They are both very talented and equally as nice. Thanks Sonal.
I enjoyed it 🙂
I love the animated drawings – so cool! I didn’t know you did Air bandb Suzanne… Something to bear in mind if we visit New York. 🙂
Yes. I have been an air bnb host since April I think. It’s great fun and I have met some wonderful people.If you do ever come to NYC please stay with me. Would love that and thank you.
Cool beans my friend-love it!
Thanks Cheryl!!
Thank you very much for your kind words ! I hope you will enjoy this recipe.
Lucie.
Merci beaucoup Lucie, one day maybe we will meet also. I love your blog the recipes and art are wonderful!!
We love using Airbnb when we travel, it really is a wonderful way to meet people in a new city. Ariana, what wonderful animations to show the baking process! Yeast cookies are very unique to me as most of the holiday baking I do involves self rising cookies. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thanks Heather, I love the animation and also a brioche like cookie or pastry sounds really delicious to me.
I love this post, especially the animation. What fun! I have visited Alsace Loraine several times and it is one of my favorite spots on this planet. The local food is over the top and it has the best restaurants and wineries.
Thank you Suzanne, for sharing and I hope to stay with you next year, I’m sorry that it didn’t work out this year.
I have never been to the Alsace region but would love to visit. I read about it and have seen photo’s it looks and sounds wonderful. Gerlinde, next year I hope to meet you. Thank you so much.
What a delightful post, Suzanne! You must have had a fantastic time meeting Ariana and Lucie. Their blog is uber-cute! And I love the title Cosmic Tomatoes. How fun. 😀 Mega hugs all around.
The blog is adorable and the animation is so so cute. It really is fun. Thanks so much!!
Hum … what a délicate pastry smell – Et les ” clémentines ” – en France, voilà qu’arrivent les clémentines de Corse, avec leurs feuilles toutes fraîches. Elle sont garanties ” non traitées ” et viennent de l’Ile de Beauté – au passage elles nous ont apporté des Saint Nicolas en pain d’épice de Dijon ( Burgundy ) ainsi que des sapins en pain d’épices aussi … et on ajoute leds déli ces d’Alsace-Lorraine … Bravo les gourmandes !
Thank you for such a lovely response en Francais.
Such a great collaboration of talents! 🙂
It really is Ronit. thanks so much.
I hope you have fun meeting all sorts of interesting people at your Airbnb. Thanks for letting us know about Cosmic Tomatoes. So cute all their illustrations that move around. I’m now following their adorable blog (through Feedly) in the French version (!!!) so that I get to practice my French 😀
PS I havent been brave enough to write them a message in French yet. I speak way better then I write!!
Neither do I. I speak and write pretty pretty badly
I love their blog it is so cute!! My French is just terrible, I would not even try to say anything.i do have fun meeting people from all over the world.
I was in NY last year, if I had known you do airbnb I would have contacted you and asked you! We stayed in one in Williamsburg. Mr H and I arrived in separate moments from separate cities. He arrived first and had to wait 3 hours to get the key. When I got there I realised I had looked up the address mildly wrong (I was just a few streets away, thank goodness) and my phone stopped working, I was tired, it was dark,… a bit of a bad moment, lol. I stopped a car with you girls to ask for the directions, and they were so kind to not just direct me to where I had to go but got me to hop in and they took me there 🙂 Arrival adventures…
Wow that’s quite s story. Wait 3 hrs for keys that’s unacceptable. Would never do that to
My guests. I like air bnb it’s a great way to both meet people and help with high cost of living in NYC!! If you come you must stay with me!!!
Hi Sofia ! I just read your comment and i’m glad you get to practice your french on Cosmic tomatoes 😉 don’t be afraid to try to comment in french ! And for the others who doesn’t speak our language we translate all the recipes in english.
Lucie from the Cosmic tomatoes team.
Delicious! What a treat and perfect with sparkling wine from Alsace! Cheers
You bet, that would be wonderful. Thanks Michelle.
Awww the animation is so cute! I stay at AirBnB all the time, if i ever have the chance to visit NYC, I hope I’ll be able to go visit you!
If you are coming to NYC email me privately as far in advance as possible. Would love to have you stay with me.
How absolutely charming those little men are and the animation is darling, too! What fun you guys must have had!
I hope you’ll share this on Throwback Thursday!! This week’s is a few posts back on my blog. 🙂
I love the animation, it’s so creative!! They have a wondeful blog; Thanks so much. Oh I would love to share this on Throwback Thursday. Will head over.
🙂
The animation is wonderful and the brioche men are totes adorable.
Thanks Lisa, totally agree.
Loving the GIF’s. And who can resist brioche?
I cannot resist brioche and yes, the gif’s are wonderful. Thanks Johnny!!!
This is so cool! I love this combination, very exciting! What is an air bnb host?
Hi Lynn; Thank you so much. I love their blog. Air bnb connects people who need a place to stay with people who have a place for them, If you have space in your home that you don’t use you list it on air bnb and travellers book the room like a hotel. You get paid for the time the person is there, set your price etc… I have been doing it about 6 months now and love it. Have met some wonderful people.
wow cool! that is really cool!
it’s a brilliant business plan and an excellent way to make money especially living in NYC where it’s really expensive. I am lucky I have room in my place that I don’t use. It works perfectly for me.
Wow, what a wonderful opportunity to meet people, and these two women had to have been so interesting. Their Christmas cookies are just adorable. It is a small world isn’t it? I’ll definitely be checking out their blog.
I met Ariana, Lucie was with her but it was wonderful meeting her. I had someone come here from China who booked my room for her parents when they came to see her graduate from college and she knew my blog. It’s such a small world. Thanks Julie.
I’m sure when the google you to see if you are actually a mass murderer, your blog gets some love!
Yes LOL thankfully I am pretty boring and very law abiding!!
Me too wah wah wah.
Thanks for the great introduction to Cosmic Tomatoes… perfect holiday cookie along with history AND absolutely adorable animation. So clever! Glad your having success with air bnb, what a wonderful way to meet people from all over!
Thank you, I was very happy to meet Ariana and get to work with both she and Lucie on this guest post. I think the cookies are wonderful and a perfect Holiday treat.
Reblogged this on ravenhawks' magazine and commented:
Awesome animations, love the recipe too.
Thank you so much. I agree the animation is so awesome.
I love it, this is amazing Suzanne! 🙂
Thanks so much Linda.
Lovely post Suzanne…
Thanks Chitra.
Suzanne–these are adorable– the best of cookies and bread– would be perfect for Christmas breakfast with the grand-girls. thanks!
Thanks Julie!
Looks delicious.. Guess u guys had fun working for this guest posy
It was fun collaborating with Ariana and Lucie. Thanks so much.
What a beautiful post Suzanne, your Airbnb must sure introduce you to some amazing folks from around the world. What a wonderful opportunity to have been exposed to that part of France, I’ve made a note of it for future trips :). Love the animations, too cute!
It does introduce me to some wonderful people, It really is fun. Thanks so much Loretta!!
OH my! Those cookies are adorable and I love that you actually met through airbnb. So cool. Those instruction illustrations are unbelievable and so so creative. Wow. What an impressive collaboration! All the best!
Very cool, thanks so much Amanda. Happy Holidays.
How talented these girls are Suzanne, how wonderful to be around such inspirational women. Love this post.
Really wonderful Cheri, they are both very talented. I love meeting people that have the same interests as I do and finding out a bit about their creative process. Happy Holidays.
I enjoyed learning about this Christmas cookie tradition in France. It is always fun to see how everyone celebrates. The animation is a great combination with the recipe. How clever!
We all have similar traditions with slight variations, I love learning about Christmas and other holidays from abroad. Thank you so much Shari.
How cool is that! Very talented ladies. I lo~ve the animation and also the Christmas cookies! I’m so glad you are enjoying the air bnb guests. 🙂
Thank you, I just served breakfast to a lovely couple from Budapest. I love meeting people thank you so much Fae.
Going to have to mark this for next year as I am all Christmas cookie’d out this year…and it’s not even Christmas yet!
Stick a fork in me I’m done, I wish. I still have baking to do. It’s a great recipe and next year if you make it let us know if you like. Merry Christmas Peter.