Gâteau breton is a thick, close-textured butter cake of flour, sugar, egg yolks and a great deal of salted butter, scored in a lattice and baked until deep gold.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
The cake was developed in the Lorient area in the second half of the nineteenth century as a keeping cake for sailors and fishermen: high in butter and sugar, low in moisture, it lasted weeks at sea. The classic proportions run close to equal weights of flour, sugar and butter, bound with egg yolks alone rather than whole eggs, which is what gives the crumb its short, almost shortbread density. The criss-cross scoring on top, brushed with yolk before baking, is the standard finish. Some versions carry a layer of prune paste or salted-butter caramel through the middle; the plain one is the original.
Common allergens: Gluten, Eggs, Dairy
Tip from the editors. Yolks only. Whole eggs lighten the crumb and turn it into an ordinary butter cake instead of the dense, keeping cake it should be.
Le Fournil des Halles bakes a three-generation kouign-amann recipe near the Halles Centrales in Rennes, alongside far breton and buckwheat galettes.
Tip: Their kouign-amann is sold in packaging that keeps it three weeks, the one Breton pastry that survives a suitcase.
Worth the queue: Kouign-amann, plain or apple
Boulangerie Hoche bakes one of Rennes' benchmark kouign-amann at 17 Rue Hoche, and its pastry team has riffed the galette-saucisse into a tribute cake.
Tip: Rue Hoche holds this bakery, 16h30 and the Nabuchodonosor in one block; come hungry and compare kouign-amann.
Worth the queue: Kouign-amann
Maison Bouvier runs its pâtisserie and chocolaterie across Rennes, the Place Toussaints shop as flagship and a counter in the Hoche Visitation centre.
Tip: Monday afternoon and Sunday openings close in July and August; the Visitation branch keeps longer standard hours.
Worth the queue: Kouign-amann
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