French · Dessert
Kouign-amann
- Advanced
- 60 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a sweet edge rounding the corners, on a slow, honest burn.
Ingredients
- 400 g strong white flour
- 260 ml water, at 20C (68F)
- 8 g fine salt
- 5 g instant dried yeast
- 300 g unsalted butter, at 14C (57F), in a flat slab
- 280 g caster sugar
- 20 g demerara sugar, for the tins
- 10 g salted butter, for the tins
Equipment
Rolling pin
The skills inside
Sugar stages & caramelKneading doughChilling to firm: the fridge as binderResting dough: the pause that does the work
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Mix the flour, water, salt and yeast to a shaggy dough, knead 5 minutes to a smooth slack ball, then rest it covered in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 5 min
- Roll to a 40 cm square, lay the butter slab across the middle, fold the dough over it and seal the edges, roll out and give one fold in three; chill 30 minutes. 30 min
- Roll out again, scatter 140 g of the caster sugar over the surface, fold in three and chill 30 minutes, then repeat with the remaining 140 g sugar and chill a final 30 minutes before shaping. 30 min
- Cut into 8 squares, fold the corners of each into the centre, drop them into tins buttered and lined with demerara, and prove 45 minutes until visibly puffed but still cold to the touch. 45 min
- Bake at 200C (400F) for 35 minutes to 40 minutes until the sugar beneath each has gone to dark caramel, then lift them out immediately or the caramel welds them in. 35 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Chilling to firm: the fridge as binder 48 recipes
- It went cold before it was handled any further, and it went in spread flat and covered rather than as a warm mass that insulates its own centre.
- It is cold through rather than cold at the edge: tested at the middle it is as firm as it is at the rim.
- It holds its shape unsupported; it can be cut, portioned, rolled or lifted without slumping, tearing, or sticking to the hands.
- The fat in it has gone solid: it feels firm and waxy to the fingers rather than greasy and yielding.
- It survives the step it was chilled for, going into heat or a coating or a mould still holding its form rather than collapsing the moment it is touched.
Where it goes wrong It was given twenty minutes instead of the hours it needed, so it is firm at the rim and soft at the core: it slumps out of shape as it is portioned, and everything made from it spreads or breaks apart in the pan.
Sugar stages & caramel 53 recipes
- Nothing is stirred once it is boiling, and any crystals clinging to the side of the pan are brushed down rather than left to fall in.
- Judged by temperature or by a tested stage rather than by time: consecutive stages are a few degrees apart and look identical in the pan.
- Colour is read off the heat and in good light, remembering that sugar keeps darkening after the flame is out.
- Stopped decisively at the point wanted: off the heat and into the next liquid or onto a cold surface, rather than left to coast in a hot pan.
- The result is clear and smooth rather than grainy, cloudy, or seized into a solid mass.
Where it goes wrong It was stirred after coming to the boil, or a stray crystal from the side of the pan fell back in. One crystal seeds the whole pan and the syrup turns grainy within seconds, and once sugar has crystallised the only cure is more water and starting the whole thing again.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Tawny Port
- Also Right
- PX Sherry or bourbon
- From the Taps
- Barleywine
- Zero-Proof
- Cold-brew coffee
Caramel echoing caramel: oxidative aging built the same flavors into the glass that the pan built into the plate.
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