In Briançon and the surrounding area, people have always picked medicinal plants. It must be said that they particularly like this mountainous region. And there is a plant in particular, or rather a tree, which has many virtues: this tree is the work. Each year, in March, we harvest its sap (it is in the spring that it rises in the trees) and we use it therapeutically. It’s not an eco-fashion, on the contrary, it’s a practice that has lasted since the 12th century !
And birch sap, suddenly, we drink it! We even do cures… This “birch water”, as it is called, is very refreshing and full of minerals. It allows, it seems, toeliminate toxins at the level of the liver and the kidneys, everything that we have accumulated during the winter and which clogs our organism… It is also excellent for the skin… Basically, it is the ideal nectar to start off on the right foot, even in dancer on the bike!
Well, if our cyclists and their fans want to put something more substantial in their mouths, we must take, without hesitation, fuck it! This is a yeast dough brioche, made from flour, eggs and butter, and flavored with orange blossom water. Its origin dates back to the Middle Ages, and it was once only made for Easter. It was during this time that eggs were allowed again after Lent, when the church forbade the eating of animal protein…
The name comes from the patois. The women who made their own bread, put aside a handful of dough, a “pogne” therefore. And they added to this ball of dough eggs and butter to enrich it and transform it into pastry. The most famous of the pognes is that of the town of Romans-sur-Isère.
In principle, for purists, there is no other ingredients in the doughbut some add rum, lemon zest or even pralines, which makes the pogne look like a brioche from Saint-Genix, a Savoyard town famous for its praline brioches.
Well, I might as well tell you right away, pogne or brioche with pralines are both delicious, and after a course of birch juice, and above all, a 166 kilometer mountain race, like today, anything goes!