Kouign Amann

December /1/2014

Little history on the Kouign Amann pastry

Kouign-amann (pronounced QUEEN-ah-mahn) are made of laminated dough—croissant dough—that's about 50% butter and 50% yeasted dough. They're generously dusted with sugar and salt right before baking, so they develop a thick, caramelized crust that's at once savory and sweet, but, at least with our recipe, mostly savory. Traditionally, kouign-amann are formed in the shape of a large cake, but individual portions made in a cupcake pan or 4 inch wild by 1 inch high, mean equal parts crunchy caramelization and tender, buttery center with every bite.

These salty, buttery pastries hail from the coastal region of Brittany, in the northwest corner of France, where Celtic tradition has prevailed since the Breton people migrated across the English Channel during the fifth and sixth centuries. It looks just like you might imagine a Celtic colony on the seacoast of France would: towering bluffs dropping straight into the sea; tiny stone houses dotting the emerald countryside; slate-colored steeples rising into the morning mist. The region is best-known for its vast salt flats where they harvest the coveted finishing salt, fleur de sel. Here, tucked into wandering village streets, bakeries hawk the much-lauded pastry treasure, whose name literally means "butter cake" in Breton.

I decided to make two different ways and both are very delicious but I put less sugar  (3/4 of a cup).

steps 1: for the dough requires first melting the butter and let it cool. Then mix it with the rest of the ingredients for the dough, which I forgot to take a picture...lol..After 30 minutes rest, the dough is ready to be rolled.

added the soft butter and marked the square.

made the butter package...

make the first fold: rolled at the dough package to a rectangle 13 by 7 inch and folded in to a busies letter and wrap with plastic or a plastic bag and refrigerate for one hour.

make the second turn and roll out the dough to 13 by 7 inch and folded in to a busies letter and wrap with plastic or a plastic bag and refrigerate for another hour.

Make the third turn add half of the sugar on the counter and place the dough on it and roll it out to 14 by 8 inch and add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar on top and roll it and flip a couple of times and them folded in to a busies letter and wrap with plastic or a plastic bag and freeze for 30 minutes and refrigerate for 30 minutes .

prepare the rings and roll out the dough to 16 by 8 inch rectangle it will be about 3/8 inch thick. cut dough into 8 equal pieces. should weight 140 grams each .

Shaping the dough :

Final: I let them set at roomtemp for about 1 hour and a half them baked the pastries: these were made in rings and also add some almonds on top.

these ones were made in large muffin tins and also add some almonds on top. 

 

Baked at 400 F. for 12 minutes and rotate and bake for another 8 to 15 minutes and also I coved them with aluminum foil when they began to look light golden brown.

I find them both very  easy and delicious indeed...