Kouign amann

Kouign amann (pronounced something like "keen ahMAH") is a simple laminated dough. Basically, you enclose butter in dough, then fold it and roll it out and repeat a bunch of times so you have lots of fat-dough-fat-dough layers. This one has 27 layers, which sounds like a lot, but I only had to do three folds, or "turns." Croissants, puff pastry, and danishes are all laminated doughs. Kouign amann is similar to a croissant, but with the addition of sugar.

This turned out pretty well for being my first attempt at laminating. I ended up with a higher fat to dough ratio than intended because I messed up the enclosing-the-butter part, but I don't think that had a huge impact on the final product.

It smelled amazing while it was baking because the sugar sprinkled on top was caramelizing. I ate way too much of it. And I made two. My co-workers will thank/resent me for bringing the rest in tomorrow.

The recipe I used came from Joe Pastry, which may be my very favorite baking site. His kouign amann looks a lot better than mine, as it should.