Recipes Sites Ingredients

Kouign Aman

Sources

I consulted quite a few sources to triangulate on the exact recipe I wanted to use. Here are the ones I found most useful.

Dough Ingredients

  • 240g ice water with 10% cubes by weight (15 plus minutes of mixing will ensure they’re melted by the end)
  • 5 g active dry yeast
  • 360 g bread flour
  • 10 g soft butter
  • 7 g kosher salt

Dough Method

  • Use Dough Ingredients
  • Add flour and butter to the stand mixer
  • Add yeast and salt on opposite sides of the stand mixer
  • Turn mixer on low and add water, mix for two minutes
  • Turn mixer on ‘2’ and mix for 15-20 minutes
  • Turn dough into bowl and proof for 40 minutes at 82.4F, 60% steam
  • Punch down and flatten into a rough 8 inch square
  • Wrap in plastic, freeze for 1 hour

Butter Block Ingredients

  • 237 g (1 c) butter

Butter Block Method

  • Using two sheets of parchment paper, mark a 6x6 inch square with folds
  • Flatten the butter block to the approximate size by whacking with a rolling pin
  • Fold up the parchment along the lines to make a 6x6 packet
  • Flip the packet over (i.e, folds down) and roll it flat
  • Refrigerate as needed to achieve a target temperature of 55F when you actually use it.

Seasoned Sugar Ingredients

  • 175g g caster sugar
  • 1 t salt

Seasoned Sugar Method

If you don’t have caster sugar (as I didn’t), you can make it by putting granulated sugar in a blender/chopper for about a minute.

Prepare Ring Molds Method

  • Line a pan with parchment, brush butter on the parchment, then sprinkle sugar on the buttered paper
  • Butter the inside of each ring mold and sprinkle sugar on the buttered inside

Six four-inch Rings Method

  • Roll out to 8 x 16 inches, tapering the far end (what will become the outside)
  • Roll up so you have a 8 inch long tube (“roll up”, not “roll out”!)
  • Slice the tube into six pastries, one about 1.3 inches tall
  • Place each spiral pastry in a buttered and sugared ring mold on the pan

Twelve three-inch Rings Method

  • Roll out to 12.5 x 16 inches, tapering the far end (what will become the outside)
  • Roll up so you have a 12 inch long tube (“roll up”, not “roll out”!)
  • Slice the outside ends off so that all pastries will be flat on both sides
  • Slice the tube into 12 pastries, one about 1 inches tall
  • Place each spiral pastry in a buttered and sugared ring mold on the pan

Method

  • Make dough using the Dough Method
  • While the dough is proofing or chilling, make the butter block using Butter Block Method.
  • While the dough is proofing or chilling, make the Seasoned Sugar using Seasoned Sugar Method.
  • While the dough is proofing or chilling, prepare the Ring Molds using Prepare Ring Mold Method.
  • Note: For the lamination process, the target temperature for both the butter and the dough is 55F.
  • Place the dough on a floured counter
  • Get the butter block out of the fridge to start warming up for the lamination
  • Roll out the dough to 8 x 16 inches
  • At this point, the dough and the butter block should be at 55F.
  • Place the butter block in the center of one half.
  • Fold the dough over the butter block to encase the butter in the dough.
  • Roll out to 8 x 24 inches, brush off excess flour, fold letter style to 8 x 8 inches, chill 30 minutes
  • Repeat the roll, fold, and chill step twice more
  • Repeat the roll, fold, and chill step once more, incorporating all of the seasoning sugar as you do
  • Depending on your Ring Mold sizes, do one of:
    • Six four-inch Rings Method
    • Twelve three-inch Rings Method
  • Proof for 40-45 minutes at 82.4F, 60% Steam in the Anova
  • Bake for 40-45 minutes at 356F, 40% steam until golden brown; leave in during preheat
  • Remove from rings immediately (otherwise they will stick) and cool on parchment
  • Reclaim the carmel from the bottom of the pan, it’s delicious!

Notes

The strict original Douarnenez recipe requires a ratio of 40 percent dough, 30 percent butter, and 30 percent sugar. I don’t think any of the variations that I saw used this ratio exactly.

Recipe Variations

I’ve tried to capture the range of variations in this recipe and my reasoning for the selections I made here.

Water Temperature

Most recipes call for mixing the yeast with warm water first to activate it, then adding the flour and the rest of the ingredients. But “My 100 Year Old Home” recommends mixing all of the ingredients together with ice water to avoid overheating the dough with the long mixer time.

Milk in the Dough

Some recipes called for milk or milk powder in the dough, and I think that this is to aid in browning. I didn’t use milk, but may try this (or adding e.g., 50g milk powder) in the future.

Sugar in the Dough

Recipes vary quite a bit here, with some omitting sugar entirely, and others adding sugar in a range of 1-3T per kilo of dough. Since there is plenty of sugar already in this recipe, and there’s no need to accelerate the rise, I omitted it in the interest of a stronger gluten structure.

Yeast variations

Some recipes called for instant yeast, or fresh yeast, neither of which I have, so this recipe uses active dry yeast.

Flour

Most recipes called for bread flour, although some used all purpose flour or pastry flour. Since this is a yeast-leavened recipe and I wanted a strong chewy roll with good gluten development, I have used bread flour.

Butter

Most recipes used 1-2 T of butter, and some called for melted butter, but since I was using ice water, I went with 1 T of room temperature butter. I used salted butter.

Salt

There was a range of 5-10g salt per recipe. I went for the middle of that range, using 7g.

Butter Block

Most recipes just used cold butter, rolled into a square using parchment paper or a plastic bag. Some recipes called for whipping the cold butter in a mixer, sometimes adding flour, sugar, and salt beforehand. Some recipes didn’t use a block at all, but called for room temp butter to be spread on the dough.

Lamination

Many recipes did all four folds at once, without resting in the refrigerator between. Some did only one or two rests. Out of an abundance of caution, I did a 30 minute rest after every fold, but may try with fewer rests in the future.

Baking

Recipe temperatures ranged from 350-425F, with times from 25-45 minutes. The Anova Precision Oven recipe for Cinnamon Rolls called for 20-25 minutes plus the preheat time at 356F, 40% steam (with convection.) This is where I started, but the 4 inch rolls that I made with the first recipe took 40-45 minutes.