Recipe: Kouign Amann

We are sure you will love this pastry essentially made of butter, sugar, butter, dough, and of course, butter!  Discover the recipe for the well-known Kouign Amann of Brittany, a flaky buttery caramelized sugar filled pastry!

Today’s recipe is curtesy of "eat the love"

Ingredients

For 12 small kouign amanns

- 2 tsp active yeast
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 1 3/4 cup bread flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 14 tablespoons cold salted butter, divided
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 3/4 to 1 cup granulated white sugar

If you need help converting the units: Kitchen Calculator

How to make a KOuign Amann?

This recipe is an easy and fast way to make a Kouign Amann. You will find the complete instructions with photos and recommendations on eatthelove.com website.

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast into the warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes, until the liquid starts to bubble.

2. Place the bread flour in the bowl of a food processor. Add salt and pulse the dry ingredients a few times to blend the salt in. Add 4 tablespoons of the butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks, and pulse until the butter is chopped into small bits and mixed into the dry ingredients.

3. Cut the remaining butter into 1/2 inch chunks and add them to the food processor bowl. Pulse 2 times. Add the cold water to the warm yeast liquid and mix together. Pour it into the food processor and pulse 3 times. 

4. Empty the entire content of the food processor on a clean surface well floured with all-purpose. Gather the dough into a ball with your hands, then push it on the surface and shape it into a rough rectangle. Toss some more flour under the dough and, with a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 12 x 15 inch rectangle with the long side facing your. Try to make the rectangle edges and corners as even and square as possible. 

5. Brush as much of the flour off of the dough with a pastry brush. The more dry flour that is on the dough, the harder it is for the dough to laminate. Fold the dough a third of the way down into the center. Brush off any flour from the bottom of the dough that you just folded over. Then fold the dough from the bottom side up and over your initial dough fold, as if folding a really long skinny letter. Brush off any flour that you can. You should have three layers and a really skinny 4 x 15 inch rectangle.

6. Now take one end and roll the dough, as if it you are forming a huge cinnamon bun. Brush the dough as you roll it, trying to get as much flour off the dough as possible as you roll. Flatten the roll from the top-side down, flattening all the layers, with the palm of your hand. Stick the flatten dough in a gallon ziplock bag and seal it. Let it rise for 30 minutes at room temperature. 

7. Once the 30 minutes are up, squish the dough down with your hand through the ziplock bag and place it in the refrigerator. Let rest in there for 1 hour or overnight.

8. Once the dough has rested and chilled, generously spray a standard 12-cup muffin tin with cooking oil. Place on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle about 6 tablespoons of sugar on a clean surface and pull the dough out and place it on the sugar. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of the sugar on top of the dough and roll the dough out into a 21 x 15 inch rectangle. Use the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar to roll the dough out if it starts to stick at all. Try to get the rectangle edges and corners as square as possible.

9. Once you’ve formed the rectangle, fold 1/3 of the dough from the right side to the center. Fold the left side over the two layers of dough, forming three layers, and a 7 x 15 inch rectangle. Roll triple-layer dough out a bit, flattening it until you have a 13 x 15 inch rectangle. Now trim the edges of the rectangle by a 1/2 inch on all sides with a sharp knife. Use a metal ruler if you have one, or just free form it, cutting evenly in one smooth motion. Don’t saw back and forth. You should have three layers of dough with no folded edges that is about 12 x 14 inches.

10. Now cut the dough into 3 x 3 1/2 inch squares; 3 rows and 4 columns. Take each square and “pinch” the dough inward with your fingers and place in the prepared muffin tin. Repeat with the remaining dough. Cover the muffin tin with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 40 minutes. About 25 minutes into the rise, turn the oven on to 400˚F to preheat it. Once the 40 minutes are up, the kouign amann dough should look puffy (but it won’t have risen much).

11. Take the plastic wrap off and place in the oven. Reduce the heat to 350˚F and bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the edges of the kouign amann are nearly burnt black. Using two butter knives or forks immediately remove the kouign amanns from the muffin tin to a wire cooling rack. Do not let them sit very long in the muffin tin, as they caramelized sugar will start to cool and harden and stick to the pan.

12. Let cool on wire rack and serve.

Our advice: Enjoy the kouign amann slightly warm and with a cup of apple cider.

Et voilà!

Did you know that? Kouign Amann literally means butter cake in breton. It was invented in 1865 in Douarnenez (Brittany). And believe it or not, it is the result of pure chance! One crowded day in a bakery in Douarnenez, there was nothing left to sell. But, in order to satisfy his customers, the baker Yves-René Scordia sets out to make a cake with what remains on hand: butter, sugar and bread dough. The Kouign-amann was born! Already delicious, it will be improved thanks to a clever folding of the dough giving it a flaky appearance that we know today.