Kouign amann

Makes: 8 servings

3 cups minus 1 1⁄ tablespoons bread flour

2

2 teaspoons instant yeast (not fast-rise)

1 3⁄ teaspoons fine sea salt

4

1 cup water at cool room temperature

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, preferably high butterfat, at 60 to 70 degrees

1 cup granulated sugar, preferably superfine. To make superfine sugar, place sugar in a blender and blend at medium to high speed for 10 seconds.

Note: To make aluminum foil pastry rings, cut eight 14-by-4-inch strips of heavy-duty aluminum foil (the standard aluminum foil roll is 12 inches, so you’ll have to roll out 14-inch-long sheets). Mark the foil along its length at 7⁄ inch. Fold the foil lengthwise along

8 the markings. Fold the foil lengthwise 2 more times to form a 14-by-1-inch strip with 4 layers of foil. Wrap each strip around a 4-inch diameter can, such as a 28-ounce can of tomatoes. Use 2 small paper clips to secure the overlapping ends to form a ring. Remove the ring from the can and adjust it to be as round as possible.

1. Make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, with a hand whisk, mix together the flour, yeast and then the salt. Add the water and the melted butter. Attach the dough hook and, starting on low speed, mix until the flour mixture is moistened, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Continuing on low speed, beat for 4 minutes. The dough will be silky smooth and have cleaned the sides of the bowl, but it will stick to the bottom and be very soft and slightly sticky to the touch. Cover the bowl and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the butter square.

2. Make the butter square: Place the softened butter on a large sheet of plastic wrap and wrap it loosely. If the butter is cold, pound it lightly with a rolling pin to flatten and soften it. Then knead it together using the plastic wrap and your knuckles to avoid touching the butter directly. Shape the butter into a 5-inch square (it will be about 3⁄ inch

4 high). At this point, the butter should be firm but workable, 68 to 70 degrees. Use it at once or set it in a cool area. The butter should be the same consistency as the dough when they are rolled together or it will break through the dough and not distribute evenly. 3. Make the dough package: Roll out the dough on a well-floured surface to an 8-inch square. Place the butter square diagonally in the center of the dough square. Wrap the butter by stretching the exposed flaps of dough over to reach across the butter square, brushing off excess flour on each flap before stretching the next flap over it. After stretching the fourth flap over the butter, which should wrap it securely in a 5 3⁄4- inch square dough package, pinch together the seams to seal it well.

4. Make the first turn: On a well-floured work surface, keeping the dough seam-side up and lightly floured, gently roll the dough package into a 13-by-7-inch rectangle. It will be about 1⁄4- inch thick. Roll into the corners and use a bench scraper or a ruler to maintain an even rectangle. If the dough blisters, gently press the blister down. If the butter breaks through, dust the area lightly with a little flour before brushing off all excess flour from the surface of the dough. Fold the dough into thirds as you would fold a business letter. This is the first turn. Wrap the dough package with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 1 hour.

5. Make the second turn: Before each turn, move dough so closed end is facing to the left. Repeat same process of rolling and folding as for the first turn (step 4), but every once in a while, flip dough to keep the seams aligned (the upper part tends to roll more than the bottom). Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for another hour.

6. Make the third turn: Clean the work surface and sprinkle with half of the sugar in a rectangle the width of the dough. Set dough on top and sprinkle most of remaining sugar on top of it. Roll the dough again into a 14-by-8-inch rectangle, flipping it over from time to time. Scrape sugar on top of the dough until all but 2 to 3 tablespoons of the sugar have been rolled into the dough. With a bench scraper, form the dough into an even rectangle.

7. Prepare the rings and pan: Either use store-bought 4-inch pastry rings (which are expensive and hard to find) or make your own as described above in the notes. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. Set the pastry rings on the prepared sheet pan and lightly coat the insides and the foil lining on the bottom with nonstick cooking spray.

8. Roll and shape the dough: Set the dough on top of the sugar on the work surface. Roll it from the center to the edges, then as necessary to form a 16-by-8-inch rectangle. It will be about 3⁄ inch thick. Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces. Each will be about a 4-inch

8 square. The dough will now be somewhat sticky as the sugar becomes syrupy. Roll 1 of the squares into a 5 1⁄2- to 6-inch square. Bring up the four corners to the center and press down firmly over the top of the dough. Cup the dough square into the palm of your hand to support it and keep the four corners together. Repeat folding, bringing up the corners to the center a second time. Press it down in the center, dipping your finger in sugar if necessary to keep it from sticking, and push it together as well as possible. Set the dough in a prepared pastry ring on the sheet pan. Repeat with the other dough squares. Each one will open up slightly and take its own shape, which is a part of its charm.

9. Cover the shaped dough loosely with plastic wrap that has been lightly coated with nonstick cooking spray, and let it sit in a warm place, ideally at 75 degrees but no higher than 80 degrees, for 30 minutes or until the dough has risen about 1 1⁄ times and most of

2 the dough touches the sides of the rings.

10. Once the dough is shaped, the baking time can be delayed by up to 2 hours by lightly covering the kougins with plastic wrap and refrigerating them. The rising time, once the kougins are removed from the refrigerator, will take about 45 minutes to an hour, but the baking time will be the same and the results comparable (refrigerating the kougins for longer than 2 hours prevents the dough from rising).

11. Preheat the oven: Thirty minutes or longer before baking, set an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

12. Bake the kougins: Bake for 12 minutes. Rotate pan halfway around. Continue baking for 8 to 15 minutes until the pastries are caramelized and the edges are deeply browned. 13. Cool the kougins: Use tongs to lift off the pastry rings and a pancake turner to lift each kouign onto a wire rack that has been lightly coated with nonstick cooking spray and set over paper towels to catch any leaking butter. If any of the kougins cannot be removed from the rings, return them to the oven for a few minutes to soften the caramel. Let the kougins cool for about 10 minutes.