Month: January 2024

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Kouign Amann

OK, folks, it’s only been 6 years. I’ve been busy. What­ev­er. First recipe to post: kouign amann. Enjoy it.

INGREDIENTS

lay­er­ing ingre­di­ents:
1.5 lbs soft but­ter
2 cups sug­ar mixed with 1.5 tbl fleur de sel or oth­er salt

dough ingre­di­ents:
1 lb 4 oz. all pur­pose flour, plus extra as need­ed
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)
1 tbl vanil­la
3 tbl veg­etable oil
2 tbl sug­ar 1 tbl active dry yeast

muf­fin pan prep ingre­di­ents:
1/4 cup but­ter
1 cup sug­ar

PREPARE THE BUTTER
1. Place the soft but­ter into a gal­lon size fre­ex­er bag. Using a rolling pin on the bag, attempt a rec­tan­gle the the full width of the bag, and about 2/3rds the length of the bag. Then place in the refrig­er­a­tor so the but­ter will hard­en. You can do this step a week in advance.

Don’t wor­ry too much about this step. So long as the but­ter is in a rec­tan­gle, you can reshape it once the but­ter is cold.

PREPARE THE DOUGH
2. Mix the flour and salt togeth­er and set aside.
3. in a large bowl, mix togeth­er the water, vanil­la, oil, sug­ar, yeast, and a few table­spoons of the flour, and let sit for a few min­utes until you see bub­bles form­ing (that will sig­ni­fy the yeast is work­ing).
4. whisk in the flour until you have a thick, glue-like paste, then switch to a spat­u­la and fold in the flour until you have a soft, but work­able dough. Add more if need­ed, or less.
5. Turn flour out onto a floured board or a pas­try cloth (I pre­fer the pas­try cloth) knead the dough 10–12 min­utes until it is smooth and pli­able. Knead in as much flour as you need, but do not make the dough ter­ri­bly stiff.
6. Form the dough into a ball. If you are mak­ing the dough over two days, refrig­er­ate the dough at this point overnight.
7. Cut a cross at the top of the dough to assist in the ris­ing process; then place the dough in a large bowl that has been oiled, cov­er with plas­tic wrap (or a tow­el), and let rise for one hour in a warm room.

PREPARE THE LAYERED PASTRY

  1. Once the but­ter has hard­ened, cut the the freez­er bag away from the hard­ened but­ter.
  2. After an hour, turn the dough out onto a floured board. Roll the dough so it is the width of the but­ter and three times as long. Place the but­ter in the cen­ter of the dough and fold the dough over the but­ter, like an enve­lope.
  1. fold the dough into thirds (again), make the 1/4 turn, and roll out again. Sprin­kle an addi­tion­al half cup sug­ar.
  2. Do this twice more to use the sug­ar, and then twice more after that with­out the sug­ar, end­ing by rolling out the dough, but not fold­ing it. Your dough, if sliced, should have mul­ti­ple lay­ers and it should be about 1/3 inch thick (or there­abouts).

PREPARE THE MUFFIN TINS

  1. Brush the inside of muf­fin tins with but­ter and then dust with sug­ar. Sprin­kle the bot­tom with a tiny pinch of sea salt.

SHAPE THE KOUIGN AMANN:

  1. Pre­heat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Shape the dough and place in muf­fin tins.

There are two ways to shape kouign amann, either spi­ral shaped or dia­mond shaped.

SPIRAL SHAPE: using a knife, slice off a strip of dough 1/2 inch wide; roll up like a sleep­ing bag and place in the muf­fin tin (left image).

DIAMOND SHAPE: using a sharp knife, slice a 3“X3” square of dough. fold each cor­ner of the square toward the cen­ter and place inside the muf­fin tin (right image).

Bake kouign amann for 30 — 40 min­utes, or until gold­en brown. If you real­ly like salt, sprin­kle the top with a bit of sea salt. LET COOL 5 min­utes, remove from pan, and let cool com­plete­ly. Enjoy.