Kougin Amann All-Purpose Recipe
This Breton classic is the best of this combination of butter and sugar you’ll find! We laminate butter with sugar to make a delightful and decadent little pastry, perfect for enjoying with a café au lait for a true taste of France!
I use Demerara sugar in my recipe to get a deeper flavor and to give the tops more of a crunch, but otherwise this recipe is best kept simple! We're making this recipe today with our Organic All-Purpose Flour (exclusive to the US) and Regen All Purpose White Flour (exclusive to the UK). You can also make it with our French Patisserie Flour, and you can find the recipe for this here.
Kougin Amann Method:
- Place flour, water, salt, yeast, and caster sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Use a dough hook attachment and mix on a slow speed for 3 minutes (until all the ingredients are incorporated).
- Turn speed up to medium-high and mix again for a further 8 minutes, taking a break halfway through to add the tablespoon of butter.
- Once dough is well developed, place in a bowl and cover. Leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour (or until doubled in size).
- During this time, take your block of butter out of its wrapper and place between two sheets of baking paper. Bash the butter with a rolling pin to flatten it, then roll it into a 15cm square before putting it back into the fridge to firm up again.
- Once your dough is finished proving, tip it onto a lightly floured surface and begin rolling it out gently to achieve a 10inch x 4inch rectangle - all this math is worth it in the end!
- Now, with the rectangle in front of you, take your butter square and place it towards one end of the rectangle. This should cover two thirds of the dough, leaving one third free.
- Fold the empty third down over the butter, then fold the bottom third up over that. This should encase the butter completely in the dough. Wrap and leave it to chill for 20 minutes in the fridge.
- After chilling, take the dough from the fridge and gently roll it out to make a rectangle of about the same size as you started with, before repeating the folding steps again.
- Do this whole process one more time but, before you fold it up, sprinkle it with half of the demerara sugar. Then, once three sets of folds have been completed, take the dough from the fridge and roll into a large rectangle (I aim for about 18inch x 12inch). Sprinkle once more generously with more of the demerara sugar.
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Cut the rectangle into squares using a sharp knife and then fold each of the four corners of the square into the middle before pushing it into a greased muffin tin. The pastry should resemble a clover at this point.
- Once each of the pastries is in, give them another sprinkle of sugar.
- Leave lightly covered to prove for 20-30 minutes or until puffy, Preheat the oven to 410 degrees Fahrenheit (210 degrees Celsius) while you wait.
- Gently brush each one with the milk, then add a final sprinkle of sugar for the best crunch!
- Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until puffed up and golden brown on the top. Remove from the tin after 5 minutes and cool further on a wire rack - wait until cooled to room temperature before you enjoy (if you can)!
