It’s a bun! Its a croissant! It’s a kouign amann! If any pastry could be a superhero, these little beauties would qualify. Their super powers would include being extra buttery and having flaky layers. # 72: Kouign Amann

 

New house rule: you can only eat one if you can pronounce the name correctly! After some trial and error, I learned that the simplest version of the name is “queen a-mahn.” If you can master a French/Breton accent, I expect more from you.

According to a Breton/English dictionary, the name translates to “butter cake” (kouign = cake and amann = butter). Considering that there’s only five ingredients in these little beauties, it makes sense to name them after the star of the show! It’s butter with a little flour, yeast, sugar and salt to hold it together. Aw yeah.

 

 

I have to admit, I’ve been avoiding making these for months now. They seemed super similar to croissants. I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to devote another sunny day to laminating pastry dough, ya know?

Thankfully, I was wrong – they only took half the time I was expecting. Plus, I was able to multitask between the laminating folds so it didn’t feel like it took over my whole morning. Magic! But also, it might be that I just feel more comfortable with the process of laminating dough now that I’m a year and half into this blog.

 

Trusty dough hook, ready for action.

 

Before kneading . . .

 

After kneading!

 

Next step: pound the butter. To do this, you need a rolling pin, two pieces of parchment paper, and really nice downstairs neighbors.

 

Happy, puffy proved dough and a flattened hunk-o-butter. Ready to laminate!

 

I always roll my dough out next to a measuring tape or ruler to make sure it gets long enough. This is the step where you hide the butter in a folded package of dough. It becomes the ninja ingredient.

 

Aaaand repeat, chill, repeat, chill, etc. This recipe only called for four turns so that cut down on the time considerably. Since my kitchen is not in direct sunlight in the morning, I only had to chill my dough twice instead of after each turn.

 

Also, remember how I said there was sugar in here? It goes in during the last turn, so it won’t soak into the dough and disappear. You want it to be able to caramelize in the oven.

 

Remember that parchment paper that you used when pounding the butter into submission? It makes the perfect butter paintbrush for prepping your pan. No need to waste any more precious butter!

 

Now it’s time to get artsy.

 

They look like pale four-leaf clovers. But they’ll taste much better I promise. I love how you can see the individual layers in each one!

 

Voila! Caramelized sugar and oozing butter. Don’t worry if the bottoms don’t come out of the pan perfectly – they will still taste heavenly.

 

Now that I’ve made the classic version, I’m going to play around with fillings. I’m thinking cinnamon, a bright fruit filling like strawberry or a rich nutella or dark chocolate…

 

 

Happy munching!

 

Recipe from: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-kouign-amann-at-home-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-190760