Nonnettes de Dijon:the history of the filled gingerbread

In brief: the nonnette is a small round gingerbread cake, filled at its center with orange marmalade and topped with a thin glaze. Its name comes from the nuns who made it in Dijon’s convents in the Middle Ages. The Dijon gingerbread it is made from dates back to the 14th century, traditionally introduced by Margaret of Flanders.

No talk of Dijon’s gastronomy is complete without this small round pastry, sold in boxes in nearly every fine grocer in the city. Unlike mustard or blackcurrant, the nonnette holds no protected status: it is a generic product that any baker can make to their own recipe, as long as they respect the basic idea, a gingerbread filled with orange and glazed.

Where the name nonnette comes from

A diminutive of “nonne”

The word “nonnette” is a diminutive of “nonne” (nun), formed with the suffix “-ette”. The CNRTL attests this pastry meaning as early as 1803: “a small round, glazed gingerbread cake originally made by nuns.” The word already denoted, since 1263, a young nun in the literal sense : the pastry inherited the name by analogy.

From Dijon’s convents to the city’s shops

In the Middle Ages, nuns in Dijon’s monasteries made these small gingerbread cakes to distribute or sell to passing travellers. This monastic production explains the religious trace in the name, even though the pastry has long since left the convents. An earlier name, “boichet,” already denoted a gingerbread made with wheat flour and white honey.

Dijon gingerbread, a distinctive dough

A ducal import from the 14th century

Gingerbread arrived in Burgundy in the 14th century, traditionally introduced by Margaret of Flanders, wife of Duke Philip the Bold, who was particularly fond of the “boichet” made with wheat flour. Unlike the Alsatian version, made with rye flour, the Dijon recipe relies on wheat flour, with a fat content below 3%.

A mother dough that rests two weeks

Traditional production follows a slow rhythm: the mother dough, a mix of flour, honey, and sugar, rests for about two weeks before egg yolks, leaven, and spices, notably aniseed, are worked in. This resting time develops the aroma, before the dough is shaped into small round cakes and baked.

A craft that shrank through the 20th century

Dijon’s gingerbread output peaked in 1956, with about 4,500 tonnes produced that year. The decline of the workshops was then sharp: the city still counted fourteen workshops in 1940, against a handful today.

Composition and craft of a nonnette

A soft dough, an orange heart, a thin glaze

The nonnette is made of a soft gingerbread dough, based on wheat flour, honey, and spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mixed spice), hollowed at its center to hold a spoonful of orange marmalade. Once baked, it receives a light glaze : icing sugar mixed with orange juice or water : that gives it its characteristic glossy look.

A small round format, filled and glazed

The format stays modest: each nonnette is a small round cake, filled and glazed, far from the large gingerbread loaf sold in slices. A common artisan recipe yields a dozen nonnettes from 275 g of flour, 200 g of honey, and 125 g of brown sugar, baked for about 20 minutes at 210 °C in individual moulds, before being filled and glazed.

A day’s rest before tasting

Artisan recipes recommend letting the nonnette rest overnight before eating it: the marmalade gradually moistens the dough, softening its texture. Eaten the same day, it stays drier. It then keeps for several days in an airtight box at room temperature without losing its softness.

Variations beyond the traditional orange

Alongside the classic orange marmalade version, variations exist today with blackcurrant jam, apricot, or chocolate filling : more recent takes that keep the same dough base and round shape, but without a protected status that would fix the recipe. Any baker can therefore compose their own version, as long as the principle : round gingerbread, filled center, thin glaze : is respected.

An origin sometimes disputed

Dijon tradition attributes the nonnette outright to the city’s convents, a lineage confirmed by several local sources and the word’s own etymology. One nuance is worth noting: some reference works on gingerbread place the nonnette’s appearance in Reims before its spread to Burgundy. Both versions agree on one point: the pastry predates any idea of a commercial brand, and its name still carries the trace of a religious, local craft.