Cinnamon Kouign Aman

July 17, 2016

Cinnamon Kouign Aman

The smell of warm pastries and cinnamon sugar is the way I woke up Big Pete this Sunday morning!

Get the coffee and be prepared to be dazzled!

Kouign Aman (pronounced Queen Aman) are a French lacquered pastry from Brittany. I have always wanted to try making them. They do require a bit of effort over 2 days but, they are well worth it. It is like making a typical croissant dough and then when you roll them out the last time you roll them in sugar instead of flour. Once they cool slightly, they are flaky and crunchy and definitely buttery. Kouign Aman literally translates to butter cake.

You will need:

1 1/2 cups of warm water
1 tbsp honey
1 envelope of dry yeast
4 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp melted butter
4 sticks of unsalted best quality butter - let come to almost room temperature
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Step 1: In a bowl add warm water, honey and yeast. Let bloom for 5 minutes to make sure yeast is active.

Step 2: in a stand mixer with a dough hook add flour, salt and melted butter. Mix for a few seconds then add yeast mixture. Mix until well combined approximately 2 minutes. The dough should literally clean the bowl when it is done.

Step 3: Cover the dough and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Step 4: On a large sheet of parchment spread the butter to form a square which is 8 inches x 8 inches. Fold up and place in fridge to get firm for 30 minutes.

Step 5: on a floured surface roll out dough to a 12 inch square.

My square was too large- if you make it 12- 13 inches it should wrap the butter with very little over lap.

Step 6: place the cold butter on top of the dough in a diamond fashion, then fold like an envelope to enclose butter.

Step 7: pound the hard butter gently to start rolling without breaking through the dough. Roll out the. dough to roughly 24 inches x 8 inches. Fold into thirds. Brush off excess flour and pinch ends. The goal is to roll out and fold to evenly distribute butter.

Step 8: wrap in plastic wrap and put in fridge for 20 minutes.

Step 9: roll out again and fold into three again.

this is your second fold - mark it so you remember. Wrap and pt back in fridge for another 20 minutes. Do this 4 times. After the 4th roll wrap dough and leave in fridge 6-8 hours or overnight.

Step 10: heat the oven to 425 degrees F and remove your dough for the final roll out. This time instead of flour you will roll out the dough in sugar or cinnamon sugar.

Step 11: roll out to a 16 inch x 16 inch square. Cut off edges to make even 4 inch squares (use a clean ruler)

I used 4 inch cheesecake pans as a mould -you could just place right on parchment paper or you could use a large muffin mould. I prefer the bigger ring as the muffin pan makes the pastry rise up instead of outward. The outward spread makes the pastry more flaky and crunchy.

Step 12: Pinch each point to the center of the square and then take each new point and fold to the center again. I also made a few with just one fold. I like the traditional double version better.