Cougnou

Cougnou

A quéniole of Valenciennes
Alternative names	Bread of Jesus
Type	Sweet bread
Place of origin	Low Countries
Main ingredients	Flour, eggs, milk, yeast, raisins, sugar
Media: Cougnou

[[File:Cougnou.jpg|thumb|A cougnou

The cougnou or bread of Jesus is a bread baked during Christmas time and is typical of the southern Low Countries.

It has various names according to the location:

• Coquille in Romance Flanders (Lille and Tournai),
• Cougnolle or similar in ancient Hainaut (Cognolle in Mons),
• Cougnou in Walloon-speaking places like Charleroi, Andenne, Namur, Dinant but also in Ardennes, in the Gaume etc.
• Quéniolle in Cambraisis,
• Volaeren or Folarts in West Flemish-speaking French Flanders like Dunkirk.

The bread of Jesus is a sweet bread formed like a baby Jesus. It is made with flour, eggs, milk, yeast, raisins and sugar. Usually, it is given to children on Christmas and St. Martin's Day and usually enjoyed with a cup of hot chocolate. This bread seems to have originated in ancient Hainaut but the bread of Jesus is now spread throughout the southern Low Countries. It is usually decorated, also differently across the provinces: with terracotta circles (called Rond) in Hainaut and Romance Flanders, with incisions in Cambraisis, elsewhere it is with flowers, sugar...

The Rond were traditionally made with clay coming from Baudour but are now made with plaster.

External links

• Florence Fadier-Rotsaert. "Histoire de rond et de cougnou (History of the bread of Jesus)" (in French). Retrieved 2007-04-04.