Kouign amann, anyone???

[lisaluvstocook]

Ok, I have become utterly fascinated by the kouign amann, a buttery, flaky example of sweet and salty goodness that originates from Brittany (sp?). It looks absolutely luscious, and it is now officially on my culinary bucket list. However, the steps seem sooooo daunting for the home cook. Does anyone have experience with this vision of yummy goodness? Is it possible to create outside of a commercial kitchen?

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Sounds interesting. Just to help the topic along:

Wikipedia: kouign amann

source: Wikipedia Commons image

Kouign amannis a Breton cake. It is a round crusty cake, made with a dough akin to bread dough with sugar sprinkled between layers. The resulting cake is slowly baked until the butter puffs up the dough (resulting in the layered aspect of it) and the sugar caramelizes. The name derives from the Breton words for cake ("kouign") and butter ("amann"). Kouign-amann is a speciality of the town Douarnenez in Finistère, in the west of France, where it originated in around 1860.

Here's more on the recipe: Google search: kouign amann recipes



It seems at least in some ways to remind me of baklava:

source: Wikipedia Commons image

 

[GLC]

After looking though a number of recipes, including several on French sites and one titled as "real," it doesn't look like it requires anything special. Certainly not the easiest dough to handle and some fine touch needed to keep the butter from breaking through, but nothing technically elaborate. I guess I'll try it. Apparently it's harder than it sounds, which is a worthy challenge. I'll have to fake the Breton butter. I keep European style high butterfat butter and some about half course sea salt. Won't be exactly the same richness as Breton country butter, but it should work. But mainly, it sounds like you have to work quickly. And probably not be discouraged easily.

 

[buckytom]

or overconfident, i'd guess.

greg, baklava was the first thing i thought of when i started reading your post.

it would be interesting to see how phyllo would compare to this dough, or a croissant.

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

I forgot about this like lots of thing I learned in my youth.This vid shows how simple it is. We were taught to laminate it a few more times.Louise découvre le Kouign aman - YouTube

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

or overconfident, i'd guess.

greg, baklava was the first thing i thought of when i started reading your post.

it would be interesting to see how phyllo would compare to this dough, or a croissant.

Tom mate this is how they make filo in Croatia
Burek sa sirom - YouTube

This is my wife making it for just two people Filo1 :: step 2 picture by Hvar2010 - Photobucket

 

[lisaluvstocook]

I think it's the whole 'lamination' process that intimidates me, making sure the butter doesn't break through, getting the right layers so that it bakes up as it should. I've seen it baked individually in muffin tins, versus the entire cake. One review likened it to the croissant, but said it is so rich and buttery that no toppings or additional butter were needed when eating.