"Described as "de l'or en beurre" - gold in butter - the kouign amann ( kween a-mahn) is likely to be the best pastry most visitors have never heard of. While its Breton name reveals its origins, it easily confuses non-French speakers as the ancient language is so dissimilar to anything resembling classic French. Kouign means "cake" or "bread", and amann means "butter", getting to the crux of the pastry's ingredients."
"The kouign amann originates from Finistère, literally meaning "end of earth" at the very tip of Brittany, where in 1860, in a boulangerie in the port town of Douarnenez, history was made - almost by accident. Baker Yves-René Scordia had run out of cakes to sell, so decided to improvise with leftover flour, butter and sugar, laminating the layers as he did with croissants, twisting them into puff pastry swirls."
"Their success was immediate thanks to the custardy soft centre and the caramelized, chewy crust. Equal parts butter and sugar, it is far more calorific than it looks. The New York Times even described it as "the fattiest pastry in all of Europe". It is, after all, the ideal crunchy, sticky vehicle to flaunt the region's gold - Brittany's salted butter. The ratio is still followed to this day: 30% butter, 30% sugar, 40% flour."
France is famed for world-class pastry, and many iconic cakes emerged by chance. The kouign amann, described as "de l'or en beurre" (gold in butter), originates in Brittany and combines layers of laminating dough, butter and sugar. The pastry was improvised in 1860 in Douarnenez by baker Yves-René Scordia, who layered leftover flour, butter and sugar like croissant dough, producing a custardy centre and a caramelized, chewy crust. The recipe balances equal parts butter and sugar and follows a 30% butter, 30% sugar, 40% flour ratio. The New York Times labeled it "the fattiest pastry in all of Europe". A plaque was unveiled in Douarnenez in 2017.
Read at The Good Life France
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