Kouing Amann

The very best French Norman Pastry, easier to make than it might appear with a caramelly exterior and the luscious layered and buttery pastry that the French made famous!

Kouing Amann - French Pastry from Normandy

1 cup warm water

2 teaspoons dry active yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon melted butter

2 1/2 cups bread lfour, plus more for dusting (all-purpose flour may be used)

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

1 - 2 teaspoons salt

8 ounces cold butter

2 tablespoons soft butter for the muffin tin

-In a bowl combine warm water, sugar and yeast. Mix slightly and let rest in bowl for about 10 minutes, until frothy on top. Add melted butter, salt, and all but 1/2 cup of the flour. Stir to form a loose shaggy ball. Sprinkle the rest of the flour on your work surface.

-Knead and fold dough on flour until most of the flour is incorporated and dough comes together but is still lightly sticky. Shape into a ball and place in a buttered bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours.

-Meantime, grate cold butter with a medium size grate, onto a plate then place in the freezer until needed. Combine 1 cup sugar with 2 teaspoons salt in a small bowl and set aside. Brush the inside of each muffin cup well with soft butter, then sprinkle each cup with sugar, shaking to coat bottoms and sides of tins. Set aside.

-TURN #1: Place dough on lightly floured counter and push down lightly into a flat disc. Roll out to a rectangle 1/4 - 1/8 inch thick. Stretch and shape dough with hands to create an even rectangle. Sprinkle half of the grated butter on the top surface of the rectangle. Flour hands and press butter gently down into dough. Fold the rectangle into 3rds as if for a letter, so the butter is folded inside of the dough. Dust off excess flour with a pastry brush from the surfaces of the dough as you fold. Wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap and place in fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

-TURN #2 - Remove dough from fridge and repeat the process above with the other half of the butter. Fold again into 3rds (Don’t chill at this point but continue on to Turn #3) However, if you want to use the dough later, you can wrap it well and freeze it at this point. To complete the pastry at a later point, take the dough out of the freezer and leave wrapped on the counter to thaw for 1 hour before continuing.)

-TURN #3 - Roll the dough out again into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface then fold as before into thirds. (Don’t chill)

-TURN #4 - Sprinkle work surface generously with sugar mixture and roll out dough again into a rectangle. Sprinkle more sugar generously onto the top of the dough and roll the sugar into the dough with the rolling pin. Fold again into 3rds and wrap well and chill for at least another hour.

-Remove dough from fridge and sprinkle sugar again on counter and on top of dough and roll into rectangle - sprinkle more sugar on top surface. Push and adjust edges, trimming if necessary so that the rectangle is evenly formed, about 10 x 14 inches. Cut dough into 12 squares about 3 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches, by cutting 2 times the long way and 3 times the short way. Take squares and bring 4 corners to the center and place into prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle more sugar on top of each pastry. Cover the Kouign Amann loosely with plastic and let them rise at room temperature until slightly puffy, 30 - 40 minutes.

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the muffin tin on a baking sheet to catch butter drips during baking. Bake for 35 -40 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through baking. Pastries are finished when the tops are deep golden and the tips look like they might be just starting to burn.

-Remove pastries from oven and allow to cool briefly, 2 - 3 minutes and then remove pastries from muffin tin cups. Transfer pastries to a cooling rack and let the pastries stand until they are just cool enough to handle. Do not let the Kouign Amann cool completely in the pan or the sugar will harden and make the pastries impossible to remove

-Serve Kouign Amann immediately: They can be served as soon as they are cool enough not to burn your mouth or you can let them cool to room temperature. They are best if served the same day they are made. Makes12 pastries.

Roll out the yeasted pastry after it rises, to a rectangle on a floured surface.

Place the shredded, chilled butter over the pastry and push gently into the pastry with floured fingers.

Fold the pastry over the butter a third of the way up.

Fold the bottom third of the pastry up over the first fold.

After the last turn, roll the pastry out into an even rectangle on a sugared counter and sprinkle more sugar mixture on top.

Cut dough into even squares and sprinkle with more sugar.

Bring the four corners of each square together and pinch lightly.

Place each square into buttered and sugared muffin tin cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes until golden and quite brown on the points.

Serve this most delicious pastry ever either warm or at room temperature.

PERSNICKETY NOTES:

**If you prefer bigger pastries, you can cut the dough into 6 - 8 square pieces and place in large muffin tins instead. The baking time will require another 5 minutes or so due to the bigger size.

**You should be able to see chunks of butter as you roll out your pastry. The chilled bits of butter layered in the pastry is what helps create the lamination effect you want in delicious French puff-pastry.

**Though this recipe is similar to the dough for croissants, it does not require the exactness that croissants do. In other words, your dough does not have to be cut exactly with perfectly even edges and no bits of butter tearing through the delicate layers of dough, or chilled to exact amounts of time. These pastries are more forgiving as the final product is a bit of a crinkled, crumpled pastry just as it is meant to be. Just be as neat as you can and that will be good enough.