Kouign-Amann
Have you ever taken a cooking class? They can be sooooo much fun.
You walk in and the first thing you see are all the items you'll need laid out nicely before you and ready to go. Then you sit down and the class begins and as you go along all the dirty dishes are magically whisked away and cleaned for you.
Cooking classes are informative and yummy and, of course, a great way to up those cooking skills and impress your friends and family (which is always important!)
This particular class was priced at $85. You can also "volunteer" for a class which involves arriving an hour early to help with setup and staying afterward to help with clean up. You still get to participate in the class, and after volunteering at two classes, you get one class for free. An economical way to take classes if you're addicted!
I recently took one of Orson Gygi's cooking classes and learned to make an amazing pastry called the Kouign-Amann, which means 'butter cake.' This pastry originated in Brittany more than a century ago.
I'd read about the Kouign-Amann once in a newspaper article that simply gushed over them. Years ago in Brittany they were made with leftover bread dough and layered with local salted butter and sugar. Contemporary bakers have created a caramel crusted version that's taken the pastry world by storm.
I'll admit that I was totally unsure how to pronounce their name, but our instructor, Richard, kept calling them what sounded to me like "Queen-Amann," so that's what I'm going with.
The process of making the Kouign-Amann is similar to making a croissant. That is, place the rolled out butter on top of the rolled out dough, refrigerate and then begin a series of rolling, folding, and refrigerating.
Below see one of my first attempts at rolling the dough to a 10x20 block.
The taste is similar to a croissant, that is, flaky and buttery, but with a carmelized bottom and a sugary top.
We each went home with six baked to perfection Kouign-Amanns (alright, only five of mine actually made it home).
When taken out of the oven, flip over onto a cooling rack so the sugar on the bottom can harden.
Let me just say, these are completely amazing hot out of the oven.
The recipe below is adapted from the Gygi class. It was quite chatty, as Richard said. So I shortened and simplified it from the four page recipe we were given.
Kouign-Amann
Author: then came September | prep time: 10 mins | cook time: 25-30 minutes | total time: 6+ hours | yield: 12 servings | category: pastry | cuisine: Brittany
Description:
Sweet, buttery Kouign-Amann pastry
Ingredients:
- 3 cups (15 ounces) bread flour
- 2-3/4 teaspoons instant yeast (osmotolerant, gold label)
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 4 Tablespoons butter, softened (Kerry Gold, unsalted)/li>
dough
- Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix together. Knead dough for about 2 minutes if using mixer, or 4 minutes by hand.
- Place in buttered bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
butter lock
- Take a quart size zip lock bag and measure 7 inches from the bottom of the bag. Draw a line at the 7 inch mark. Take 8 ounces of butter and cut into small pieces and place inside the bag. Using a rolling pin, roll the butter out inside the bag, filling the corners and going up to the 7 inch line. Place in the fridge.
- After an hour, take the dough from the fridge and roll into a 10 inch square using a rolling pin and your hands. Remove the butter block from the fridge and cut the sides of the bag to remove the butter. (Dough and butter should be about the same temperature.) Place the butter diagonally across the 10 inch square dough (like a diamond)
- Fold the sides of the dough up over the butter on all four sides. The dough should now be in an X shape.
first turn
- Flour the rolling surface and roll out the dough to a 10x20 rectangle. The pinched seams will be facing up. Note: when rolling the dough, roll up to but not over the ends of the dough.
- Fold the dough 1/3 up from the bottom and 2/3 down from the top.. Make sure the ends meet in the middle of the dough.
- Wrap with plastic wrap, place on a sheet pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
second turn
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and flour your work surface. Rotate the dough so the long seam is to your right. Roll out to a 10x20 rectangle. Brush off any excess flour and again fold into thirds. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
third turn
- Repeat the same process as for the second turn and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Prepare muffin tins:liberally butter then coat with sugar.
sugar lock
- Do not flour your work space. Instead spread a generous amount of sugar on the table and place the dough on top. Add more sugar to the top of the dough and roll out to 10x20 inches. You can also sprinkle 1 tsp of sea salt (fleur de sel) over the dough. Fold the dough in thirds and rotate.
- Do not refrigerate. Roll into a 16x16 square, using the sugar to roll out the dough. With a pizza cutter, carefully cut each edge. This will allow the edges to open when baking.
- Mark both sides of the dough at 4, 8, 12, inches. Cut into 16 pieces.
- Take a cut square and bring opposite corners together and pinch well. Take the remaining two corners and add to the center. Place into buttered and sugared muffin tin. Press down well into the bottom of the tin.
- Let rise until they look puffy and you see layers on the dough, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Carefully brush with egg wash and add a final sprinkling of sugar.
- Place muffin tin on baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Turn oven down to 350 degrees, remove baking sheet, and bake an additional 10-15 minutes. The tops should be golden brown and the centers still pale.
- Remove from oven and place upside down on a cooling rack. After cooling turn back over and enjoy!
Notes:
You may freeze the dough after the butter lock. The dough will keep for weeks. When ready to resume, thaw in fridge.
When rolling the dough, roll up to but not over the ends.
Use unsalted butter because it is fresher. The salt acts as a preservative so it is sold longer.
Use a good European butter. For example, Kerry Gold. or a French butter.
Buy the yeast with a gold label, instead of a red label. That is, an osmotolerant yeast. It will perform better in high-sugar doughs.
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