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Bernard’s advice:
if you want a flat kouign aman when you bake it (as I love it!), let the bread dough rise to the maximum (2h30) so that all the yeast disappears. If you prefer a slightly more puffy kouign aman, use the dough after one hour of rest.
Kouign Amann was my first “slightly” difficult recipe that I made when I was 14. It took me over a year (with breaks!!) to come up with this recipe. At that time I could not find any book that explained the process of making kouign amann! So I had to improvise and I came up with this! Since then I realized that this was exactly how it should be done, so I hadn’t invented anything! Here is my secret recipe that I have kept locked in a blue binder for a long time! This typical Breton recipe comes from Douarnenez in Finistère and was invented only in 1860! The “kouign amann” means cake (kouign) or bread with butter (amann).
Recipe of the “kouign amann” for 6 persons:
-210g of flour (+50g for spreading)
-125g of warm water
-1/2 sachet of dry yeast or 10g of fresh yeast
-one teaspoon of salt
-200g of soft salted butter (without salt crystals!!) + 25g for the mould +25g for the top
-200g sugar (+25g after cooking)
Start by diluting the fresh or dry yeast. For fresh yeast, crumble it first!
Add 50g of lukewarm water and mix well to dissolve all the yeast.
Add salt and flour and mix well. Then add the rest of the warm water and mix well, either in a food processor, in a bread machine or by hand! If you have a bread machine, proceed as for a loaf of bread but on the program “leavened dough”!
Knead the dough on a clean surface. Put the dough in a bowl, draw a cross with a knife on the top and cover with a clean cloth.
Allow to swell for at least one and a half to two hours.
Bernard’s advice:
if you want a flat kouign aman when you bake it (as I love it!), let the bread dough rise to the maximum (2h30) so that all the yeast disappears. If you prefer a slightly more puffy kouign aman, use the dough after one hour of rest.
Put all the ingredients on the work surface, including the 50g of flour that we will use to spread the mixture. This way, when weighing, you are sure not to add too much flour to the dough.
Roll out the bread dough as much as possible. This operation takes time because the dough is very elastic! But by insisting, we get there. Do not forget to flour well by drawing from the 50g! Always “caress” the dough with floured hands.
Spread the butter on the dough up to 1 or 2 centimeters from the edge. That’s why you shouldn’t use salted butter with salt crystals, because they tear the dough!
Once all the butter is spread out, sprinkle with the 200g of sugar in a very uniform way!
Press lightly all over the surface to incorporate the sugar into the butter.
Then fold the dough in three lengthwise.
Then fold in the sides to fold in thirds widthwise.
Always use the weighed flour to flour the work surface and the roller. Roll out the dough lengthwise and widthwise very gently so as not to crush everything, which would make the butter and sugar come out like toothpaste!
Once the dough is rolled out, fold again in three lengthwise, roll out again and then widthwise. At this point, the sugar and butter have only one idea in mind, to get out by breaking the dough!
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter a 26cm pan with the 25g of butter. You can, which I recommend and which I did not do on the photo, cut a parchment paper of the size of the bottom of the mould which will be placed in this case at the bottom before buttering the whole!
Take the dough and roll it out to the size of the pan. Of course, you can also use a rectangular mold!
Sprinkle the remaining 25g of butter on top of the dough. Draw lines on the dough with a knife.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 180°C.
Remove from oven and drizzle the cake with the melted butter in the pan, or let the cake drink the butter by itself! As soon as the butter is incorporated, unmold by placing an inverted dish on the pan, turn over and shake to drop the cake onto the dish.
Then turn the cake over to reveal the braces. Sprinkle with the remaining 25g of sugar!
The kouign aman can be kept for 4 or 5 days or frozen very well. Before eating it, it must be warmed up a little in a hot oven or in the microwave (30s).
