Kouign Amann, a Breton Cake, is a flaky and crunchy pastry with caramelized outer crust and sweet, salty & buttery goodness in every single bite. This is by far the best and irresistibly delicious pastry that I have ever tried!! It's the world's best pastry!!
I highly encourage all of you to make this at home. It is a kind of laminated dough that is used to make puff pastry or croissants. Now, if you ask me what laminated dough is - in simple terms, it means folding layers of butter in the dough, rolling it, and then chilling it. It's really a fun process. I have prepared this dish on numerous occasions, and I was excited every single time.
My inspiration for this recipe has been my favorite chef John from Food Wishes. I have been following his recipes from the time I am in the USA, and his recipes never fail - in fact, it ends up being a super hit item at home every single time. And therefore, all the credit for this recipe goes to him. I have my detailed recipe below, but you can also check the video by chef John on how it is done.
If you are a salty caramel lover like me, you will go crazy over this dessert. I can bet you on this!
How to make Kouign Amann - World's best fattiest pastry 🙂
The ingredients used in this recipe are very basic and simple. To prepare the dough, activate the yeast and add 2 cups of flour and mix to form a sticky dough. Next, transfer the dough to a working surface, add flour in small increments and knead till you get a soft, elastic dough. This is done so that you don't add excess flour all at once but add only as much as needed. The amount of flour may vary depending on the brand of flour, as well as weather conditions. Let the dough rest at room temperature until doubled in size.
What creates the layers in pastries
Next comes the fun part. I just love this. Laminated dough or creating beautiful layers for the pastry. Rolling it into rectangles, grating butter, and folding it into thirds. Do this twice with 2 ice-cold sticks of butter and 2 times without butter. A detailed recipe is provided below in the recipe section.
One more interesting step you do here is to combine salt and sugar. Yes, it is a sweet as well as a savory treat. The salt in the recipe gives an additional kick here. Because I have added the salted butter throughout my recipe, I have reduced the amount of salt.
If using unsalted butter, increase the amount of salt. Coat this salt-sugar mixture inside each muffin tin, and just before you bake, roll the dough on a sugar-salt sprinkled surface. Keep sprinkling more and more sugar as you roll them into a rectangle.
How to shape pastry or pastries?
Finally, to shape them, cut the rectangle into 12 squares and for each square, bring the sides together to center and place it in the muffin tin.
You are ready to bake now, and the world's best pastry is right before you in less than 30 minutes!!!
Ingredients to prepare Kouign Amann, the world's best pastry
For the laminated dough
- 1 cup Warm water
- 1 packet Active dry yeast ( 2 ¼ tsp)
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
- 1 tablespoon Melted butter, salted (feel free to use unsalted butter)
- 2 ¼ cups All purpose flour, plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Other ingredients (for seasoned sugar)
- ¾ cup Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 sticks Ice Cold salted butter for pastry (8 oz) (feel free to use unsalted butter, check notes)
- 1 tablespoon Melted butter for muffin pan, salted (feel free to use unsalted butter)
Instructions to prepare Kouign Amann - world's best and fattiest pastry from scratch
Step I
- In a large bowl, add warm water, sugar and sprinkle the yeast. Keep it aside for 10 minutes or until it is foamy.
- Add melted butter, 2 cups of flour, and salt to the yeast mixture and mix it using a wooden spoon to get a sticky dough.
- Dust the working surface with the remaining ¼ cup of flour, transfer the dough and knead, folding the excess flour to get a soft, elastic dough. Add any extra flour only if needed.
- Transfer this dough to a greased bowl. Cover it and keep it in a warm place for 1.5 hours or until doubled in size.
Step II
- In a small bowl, add sugar and salt and mix. Taste and add more salt only if needed. I have used salted butter in my recipe, so I have added only ½ teaspoon of salt. If you use unsalted butter, you can add up to 1.5 teaspoon of salt.
Step III
- Brush your muffin tin with 1 tablespoon of butter. Spoon the prepared sugar salt mixture into the muffin tin and toss, and shake to coat the muffin tin. Turn the tin to remove any excess sugar and add it back to the bowl.
Step IV
- Transfer the dough onto the floured working surface and roll them to form a rectangle about ⅛ inch to ¼ inch thick.
- Take one stick of ice-cold butter, and using a cheese grater, grate it directly onto the rolled dough, leaving a small portion of the edges un-buttered. Pat this butter with floured fingers and fold the dough into thirds. Place this on a silicone mat. Cover it with plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, roll the dough again into a rectangle. Grate the second stick of ice-cold butter onto the rolled dough as before, pat the butter with floured fingers and again fold the dough into thirds. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Lightly flour the working surface if needed. Repeat the fold and roll process two more times but without adding additional butter. Give it one final fold into thirds and wrap this in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This is done to get cool down the butter and also help create those beautiful layers.
Step V
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Sprinkle a generous amount of sugar-salt mixture onto the working surface. Place the dough and sprinkle some more sugar-salt mixture on top of it.
- Roll the dough into a ⅛ inch - ¼ inch thick rectangle, and keep sprinkling the sugar-salt mixture as you roll.
- Using a pizza cutter, trim the edges of the rolled-out dough to get a perfect rectangle. Next, cut the rolled-out dough into 12 squares, and sprinkle more sugar if needed. Don't throw away any scrapes. You can bake them as well, and they taste equally good.
- To shape the Kouign Amann - take each square and bring all the corners together at the center and place them in the muffin tin. Top them with some more sugar-salt mixture. Let the dough rest in the muffin pan for 10 minutes.
- Bake this in a preheated oven till they puff up and are beautifully browned for about 25 to 30 minutes.
- Remove them from the pan and place them on the cooling rack as soon as they are out of the oven. Let it cool for 15 minutes.
- Kouign Amann - the best pastry is ready. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- Feel free to use unsalted butter. In that case, increase the amount of salt to 2 tsp.
Detailed recipe for Kouign Amann - World's best and fattiest french pastry
Recipe card
Kouign Amann | World’s Best Fattiest Pastry | Kouign-Amann
Ingredients
For the laminated dough
- 1 cup Warm water
- 1 packet Active dry yeast ( 2 ¼ tsp)
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tablespoon Melted butter , salted (feel free to use unsalted butter)
- 2 ¼ cups All purpose flour , plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Other ingredients (for seasoned sugar)
- ¾ cup Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 sticks Ice Cold salted butter for pastry , 8 oz (feel free to use unsalted butter, check notes)
- 1 tablespoon Melted butter for muffin pan , salted (feel free to use unsalted butter)
Instructions
Step I
- In a large bowl, add warm water, sugar and sprinkle yeast. Keep it aside for 10 minutes or until it is foamy.1 cup Warm water, 1 tablespoon Sugar, 1 packet Active dry yeast
- Add melted butter, 2 cups of flour, salt to the yeast mixture and mix it using a wooden spoon to get a sticky dough.1 tablespoon Melted butter, 2 ¼ cups All purpose flour, 1 teaspoon Salt
- Dust the working surface with the remaining ¼ cup of flour, transfer the dough and knead, folding the excess flour to get a soft, elastic dough. Add any extra flour only if needed.
- Transfer this dough to a greased bowl. Cover it and keep it in a warm place for 1.5 hours or until doubled in size.
Step II
- In a small bowl, add sugar and salt and mix. Taste and add more salt only if needed. I have used salted butter in my recipe so I have added only ½ teaspoon of salt. If you are using unsalted butter, you can add up to 1.5 teaspoon of salt.¾ cup Sugar, ½ teaspoon Salt
Step III
- Brush your muffin tin with 1 tablespoon of butter. Spoon the prepared sugar salt mixture into the muffin tin and toss, and shake to coat the muffin tin. Turn the tin to remove any excess sugar and add it back to the bowl.1 tablespoon Melted butter for muffin pan
Step IV
- Transfer the dough onto the floured working surface and roll them to form a rectangle about ⅛ inch to ¼ inch thick.
- Take one stick of ice-cold butter, and using a cheese grater, grate it directly onto the rolled dough, leaving a small portion of the edges un-buttered. Pat this butter with floured fingers and fold the dough into thirds. Place this on a silicone mat. Cover it with plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.2 sticks Ice Cold salted butter for pastry
- After 30 minutes, roll the dough again into a rectangle. Grate the second stick of ice-cold butter onto the rolled dough as before, pat the butter with floured fingers and again fold the dough into thirds. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Lightly flour the working surface if needed. Repeat the fold and roll process two more times but without adding additional butter. Give it one final fold into thirds and wrap this in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This is done to cool down the butter and help create those beautiful layers.2 sticks Ice Cold salted butter for pastry
Step V
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Sprinkle a generous amount of sugar-salt mixture onto the working surface. Place the dough and sprinkle some more sugar-salt mixture on top of it.
- Roll the dough into a ⅛ inch - ¼ inch thick rectangle, and keep sprinkling the sugar-salt mixture as you roll.
- Using a pizza cutter, trim the edges of the rolled-out dough to get a perfect rectangle. Next, cut rolled-out dough into 12 squares, and sprinkle more sugar if needed. Don't throw away any scrapes. you can bake them, and they taste equally good.
- To shape the Kouign Amann - take each square and bring all the corners together at the center and place them in the muffin tin. Top them with some more sugar-salt mixture. Let the dough rest in the muffin pan for 10 minutes.
- Bake this in a preheated oven till they puff up and are beautifully browned for about 25 to 30 minutes.
- Remove them from the pan and place them on the cooling rack as soon as they are out of the oven. Let it cool for 15 minutes.
- Kouign Amann - the best pastry is ready. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Feel free to use unsalted butter. In that case, increase the amount of salt to 1.5 to 2 tsp.
Nutrition
***Click below to save it on Pinterest***
Wm. Stetz
I made this recipe for the first time after comparing several other recipe approaches.
My local French pastry cafe makes these and they are to die for. So I had to give it a try. They turned out very well and I will make them again, although the time involved with chilling pastry a couple of times makes for a very long process!
Excellent results with the very clear and accurate recipe description.
Thank you, Kushi !!