Coquille de Noël (French Christmas Brioche)

Coquille de Noël is a French Christmas brioche. Originally from Northern France, this brioche will be perfect on your Christmas Day breakfast table !

Lire la recette de la coquille de Noël en Français

I feel like my duty as a French dessert blogger is to share French recipes. I mean, it makes sense, right ? As a result, today's recipe is a traditionnal French Christmas recipe.


Coquille de Noël is a brioche from Northern France (by the way, this tarte au sucre is another recipe from Northern France - can you guess where I live ?). This brioche is only available in stores around the Holidays (which is a shame because it's delicious). When you start seeing coquilles in stores, you know Christmas is coming.


This Christmas brioche, shaped as a swaddled baby Jesus, is a staple of Christmas day breakfast or Holiday snacks. In elementary school, before Christmas break, we'd get a little bag filled with chocolate, an orange or a clementine and a coquille. It's not Christmas if we haven't eaten our weight in coquille de Noël - at least in my house.


You can even add chocolate chips or raisins to the dough, or add pearl sugar to the top of the coquille before baking. This recipe makes one big coquille, two medium ones or four individual ones. Spread a slice with butter and dunk it in homemade hot chocolate, and you've got yourself an amazing treat.
This is a pretty easy recipe to make, don't let the yeast discourage you. You definitely don't want to miss your chance of eating this French Christmas brioche ;) Also, I mention an electric mixer in the recipe, but you can obviously use a hand mixer with dough attachments, or do it all yourself.


Here's how to make a French Christmas brioche or Coquille de Noël :

COQUILLE DE NOËL (French Christmas Brioche)
by A Cup Of Sprinkles

Coquille de Noël is a French Christmas brioche. Originally from Northern France, this brioche will be perfect on your Christmas Day breakfast table !

Cook time : 30 minutes
Makes one large brioche or 2 medium ones

Ingredients :
180mL of milk, room temperature
21g of fresh baker's yeast (1 packet/2 tsp of dry yeast)
500g of flour
80g of sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
2 eggs
100g of butter, softened
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp of milk (for the egg wash)

Instructions :

Crumble the fresh baker's yeast in the slightly warm milk and let rest for 2-3 minutes (or put the dry yeast in the slightly warm milk and let rest for 2-3 minutes.).

Whisk the flour, sugar and salt together in the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the dough attachment.

Pour the milk over the dry ingredients and start mixing.

Beat the eggs and add them to the dough, then cut the softened butter into cubes and add them slowly to the dough while kneading.

Mix/knead until everything is incorporated. The dough should be elastic and it should unstick from the bowl easily.

Put the dough in a greased and floured bowl, cover and let rise in a warm spot away from drafts for 1h30.

After an hour and a half, take the dough out of the bowl and put it on a floured surface. Gently knead the dough.

Form a ball, and cut it in half. Cut one half into two balls of dough that are the same size.

Shape the brioche : on a baking paper covered baking sheet, put the bigger ball of dough in the middle, adding the two small ones on either ends (see picture below).

Let rise in a warm spot away from drafts for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven.

Whisk the egg yolk with the tablespoon of milk and brush it onto the brioche.

Bake the brioche for 25 to 30 minutes. The brioche should take a golden color.

Notes :

To know if the coquille de Noël is done baking, turn it over carefully, and gently knock on the bottom of the brioche : it should sound hollow.

You can add chocolate chips or raisins to the dough. If you do, add them after the butter.

You can also add pearl sugar to the top of the brioche after brushing it with the egg wash.

This recipe makes one large brioche, two medium ones, or four individual ones.

Let me know in the comments if you make this Coquille de Noël ! You can also share a picture on Instagram by tagging @acupofsprinkles and using the hashtag #acupofsprinkles !

See more French recipes.