kouign amann #4.

this is the 4th & last installment in my Kouign Amann series because the only thing left for me to do now is travel to Brittany so i can taste the real thing & believe me-- it's on "the list".

it's been awhile, but the buttery cake with the crackling sugar top & caramely sides is every bit as good as i remember. speaking of which, when i went looking for the last incarnation of the recipe, i found that i'd never written it down in final form. so, after much hunting & pecking through my past posts i strung the pieces together & here it is--

Kouign Amann
adapted from Gale Gand's recipe in butter, sugar, flour, eggs & David Lebovitz.

1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 C warm water
2 1/4 C AP flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
10 T lukewarm water
4 oz Pamplie butter (available at Whole Foods), cut into 1/2" pieces & slightly chilled.
1 1/2 C granulated sugar

In a small bowl, stir together yeast & 1/4 C water. Let stand till foamy.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt. Add yeast & mix with your hands. Add the 10 T water and continue mixing until dough comes together. If dough is too dry, add a tiny bit more water until it does.

Turn dough out onto silpat. Knead for about 4 minutes until elastic. Dough will be sticky.

Oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl, cover with a towel & let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. I proof in my oven with a bowl of steaming water on the bottom shelf.

Do 4 turns as for puff pastry. I've described it below, but I recommend watching this video for technique--> start at 2:10 to hear what they say about the butter. Technique for turns follows that.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly-floured surface. Roll to an 8x14" rectangle (approximately), short ends at top and bottom. Distribute butter in the center, sprinkle with 1/4 C sugar. Fold top end down over butter, then bottom end up over the top piece so that you have little package that encases the butter. Give dough 1/4 turn to the right (1 turn). Sprinkle top of dough with sugar and roll to 8x14" rectangle again, sprinkle with more sugar, fold top end down, then bottom end up. Give 1/4 turn to the right (1 turn). Place on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Chill for 10 minutes. (That was 2 turns total)

Do 2 more turns as above, chilling 10 minutes in between each turn.

Heat oven to 400.

Spray a 9" cake pan with cooking spray (I have done this in a 9" pan, but I prefer splitting the dough in half & baking in 2 (7") cake pans).

Roll dough to a 10" (8" if using 7" pans) circle and place into prepared pan. Sprinkle top with more sugar, cross hatch top with lame or exacto blade.

For 9" cake bake bake 30-32 minutes, or until top is caramelized to deep golden brown
for 7" cakes bake 28-30 minutes, or until top is caramelized to deep golden brown.

Cool cake in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan - don't let it sit in the pan for too long or you'll never get it out of there!

cocoa macarons.

I made these with some leftover almond flour. Added 3 Tbsp cocoa powder to the basic macarons recipe.

I sifted the almond flour this time, but ran out of patience when it came time to sift the cocoa powder. I didn't have the patience to let them "dry" for 1 hour either, so i piped them out & threw them right in the oven.

& they came out fine.

It dawned on me that I really don't like macarons that much. The taste, I mean. They're just ok.

You won't find me hunting down the best macarons that money can buy, but if i ever get to Europe I'll be making a special pilgrimage to Brittany for Kouign Amann.

Priorities.

tic tac toe: kouign-amann test #3.

here's my latest test & i'm thrilled with the results. whether or not it's like an authentic kouign-amann, it's so damn good that i would make it again in exactly this way.

i used pamplie & since i've seen some photos of kouign-amann with their tops cross-hatched (gale gand recommends it too), i decided to give that a try. in bread school we used a lame, but i used an exacto blade.

what a difference it made on the inside of the cake. compare these photos (test #4 is on the top, test #3 on the bottom).



"drier" layers in #4 as opposed to coarse, slightly-wet crumb in #3. this is because the cross-hatch on top allowed some of the moisture to escape while it was baking. i suspect that's also why there was a lot more caramelization this time around. less moisture to hinder the caramelization process?

& i wanted to show you something. i cut the dough in half so i could bake 2 smaller (7") cakes instead of 1 (9"). this is what the dough looks like on the inside after 4 folds. layers & layers of dough & butter.

vintage postcard from brittany.

by Cock robin at flickr

test 2: kouign amann.

the first try was a doughy result. eh.

next i babelfished the technique & decided that for test 2 i would do 4 folds as for puff pastry.

so here's test 2. i still don't know if it's right, but at last we have a yeast-raised butter cake. the texture was significantly different this time around with the 4 folds/turns. a whole lot lighter & even though it's yeast-raised, it's cakey-tender with pieces of crispy, caramelized sugar.

i didn't use pamplie butter because i was just testing technique, so i'll probably do 1 more test with the pamplie & then set it aside until i can taste the real thing. (C & i have been searching for kouign amann in san francisco but to no avail. if exists here, it's on someone's secret menu.)

changes from last time:

used 1 3/4 C sugar
4 folds, as for puff pastry (see video below)
chill 10 minutes between folds.
bake at 400 for 28 minutes

--------------

puff pastry technique on a champagne buzz.
my kind of girls.

babelfishing the kouign amann.

the lamination is what bothered me. i've made a lot of croissants & kouign amann is not croissants but still, this--



seemed too clunky to be right & it's been bothering me ever since.

there were a couple of ideas to borrow from croissants, like adding turns to the folds & pounding the butter into a sheet instead of distributing it in chunks, but i decided it would be way more fun to search french/breton websites & blogs for recipes & throw them into babelfish for a loose translation:

--------
To start, make warm water with a sugar grip and water yeast there. Incorporate the flour then and knead until obtaining a quite smooth and homogeneous paste. Let the paste raise during one hour to the shelter of the draught in a tepid place... The hour is now past. Light your furnace and make preheat it around 200°C. During this time, spread out first once the paste and distribute butter in pieces on all its surface. Here are which is made?! Very well... Powder with sugar and fold into four whole while making swivel the whole of a half-turn as for a puff pastry. Réabaissez again the paste and start again the operation. On the whole, this operation will have had to be carried out four times. At present, place the paste in a well buttered mould, whitewash surface with beaten egg and put at the furnace for 25 minutes. Let cool the "cake with butter" (significance of Kouign-mercy into Breton) so that it is tepid and taste it.
anarvorig.com

---> mostly the same with the butter distributed in chunks, but they're folding the dough into 4 (not 3 twice), they're also giving it a turn like you do for croissants & they're doing this 4 times, not twice.


---------
To spread out the bread dough (rising) in a circle approximately 25 cm in diameter. To paste with half of butter. To powder with half of sugar. To fold into 4. D-to spread out. To distribute the remainder of butter, then the remainder of sugar. To fold into 4. To spread out in a mould of diameter 24 or 26cm of diameter. To powder with a little sugar. To charge with 180°C during approximately 45 minutes. The cake must be well gilded. To unmould on a plate immediately. Attention, the sugar caramelized with butter burns.
bergablogue

--->distributing the butter in chunks, twice, also folding in 4, no mention of turn & is anyone chilling in between the folds?

what does Réabaissez mean?

Réabaissez is not translatable.

trying to remember back to french class how about Réabaisser?

nothing.

baisser = lower, turn down-- could that mean chill?

----------
finally we have mention of a refrigerator & One needs 4 turns on the whole, although we can't understand practically anything else that's being said:

To water yeast in water. To carry out the paste by mixing the flour with yeast diluted in water, let rest 20 mn. Tourrer as an ordinary feuillettage for the 2 first turns use flour. Butter ramoli must be mixed with the caster sugar before being added. Let rest with the refrigerator 30 minutes then réaiser the two last turns with caster sugar which you will liberally powder on all the paste. Butter and sweeten a mould and deposit the paste inside by spreading out it with the hand so that it marries the shape of the mould. Let push 20 more mn. Gild surface and again powder with caster sugar to cook with 200°c approximately 40 mn. The Councils Kouign amann (Litéralement cake of butter) was born at the 19 2nd century in a pastry making from Douarnenez. To carry out a good kouing mercy you need a fresh yeast and a butter 1/2 farm salt. At the time of the incorporation of butter one needs qu"il is ramoli and mixed with the caster sugar. One needs 4 turns on the whole, 2 with flour and 2 with Bien sugar to let put back the paste after each tourrage with the refrigerator.
patiss.com

---> in conclusion, next time i'll do 4 turns (4 folds per), chilling in between.

i have a plan. it's a mission.

kouign amann.

I don't know if it would pass muster with the grandma in Brittany who's been making it for 70 years, but here's my attempt.

I had enough butter to do 2 batches & I found that the best result, especially in terms of technique, is a combination of both worlds- Gand & Lebovitz.

Here's what I would do if I made it again & I probably won't until I taste an authentic Kouign Amann, because I sort of need to know what to strive for.

-----------------
Kouign Amann

1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 C warm water
2 1/4 C AP flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
10 T lukewarm water
4 oz best-quality butter, cut into 1/2" pieces & chilled (i used Pamplie)
1 C granulated sugar

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the 1/4 C water. Let stand about 10 minutes till foamy.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt. Add yeast & start mixing with your hands. Add the 10 T water and continue mixing.

Turn dough out onto silpat. Knead for 4 minutes until elastic. Dough will be sticky.

Oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl, cover with a towel & let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. (My homemade proof box is a large pot of boiling water in the bottom of my oven, refreshed with more boiling water about 30 minutes into the rise).



Turn the dough out onto a lightly-floured silpat, board or countertop. Roll to a 12x18" rectangle. Turn so short ends are on your left and right. Distribute butter in the center, sprinkle with 1/4 C sugar.



Fold in thirds like a letter (left edge to center, then right edge over (I used the silpat to flip the edges over). Sprinkle the top with another 1/4 C sugar & fold in thirds again. Place dough on a plastic wrapped plate. Cover & chill for 1 hour.



Sprinkle 1/4 C sugar on a clean silpat (use more if you want). Place chilled dough on silpat, sprinkle some more sugar on top of the dough & roll out to a 12x18" rectangle. As before, fold into thirds, then fold into thirds again. Place on plastic wrapped plate & chill for 30 minutes - 1hour.

Preheat oven to 400.

Spray a 9" cake pan with cooking spray.

On a clean silpat, roll dough out to a 10" circle & place in pan, folding in edges if necessary. Sprinkle top with 1/4 C sugar.



Bake at 400 for 30-32 minutes, until golden brown on top. Let cool slightly in pan on rack. When crust has hardened slightly, turn cake out of pan & let cool on a rack.

the butter.

I probably should've read up on this before I went shopping, but nevertheless I think I got a good butter for the Breton butter cake.

The label made me curious: Pamplie buerre de baratte A.O.C. Charentes-Poitou Extra fin

By way of eGullet, I found this discussion on butter (Pamplie is mentioned) which in turn led me to Ptipois' blog for a fascinating post + pictures on the making of Saint-Coal butter.

There's so much out there I don't know anything about.
It makes me glad.

because i'm a little burnt out on cupcakes, i thought i'd make some cookies this weekend.

photo by YaYa Photos on flickr

except that, like searching for brazilian or swedish fashion designers, i got distracted by something else when i was looking for cookies. in this case - Kouign Amann- a yeast-raised breton butter cake with caramelized sugar on top.

i haven't done anything yeast-raised since i went to bread school, so this should be interesting. the one thing i've got going for me is that kouign amann comes in many different shapes & sizes, so if i screw up i can always play it off like that's how it's supposed to be.

i'm going to use gale gand's recipe, while paying attention to david lebovitz's tips. & because i've read everywhere that you should use the best quality butter you can find, i'm bracing myself to spend what i'm sure will be close to $63 for a lb of "best quality" salted butter at whole foods.