Kouign-amann
Photo: Haltopub · Public domain

History

The name is Breton for butter cake, and the recipe belongs to Douarnenez in Finistère, where a baker is said to have improvised it in the 1860s from bread dough, butter and sugar when he ran short of other ingredients. The proportions are close to a third each, which is why it eats the way it does. It travelled across Brittany and is now baked as far away as San Francisco and Tokyo, but the Breton version is still the reference: a single large cake cut in wedges, or the individual kouignettes that Rennes shops sell by the piece. Rennes bakeries compete on it openly, and the crust is the tell, because a good one crackles and a poor one is merely sweet.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy

Make it at home

Yield 8Hands-on 50 minTotal 5 hrDifficulty Advanced

Ingredients

  • 300g strong white flour
  • 6g fine salt
  • 5g fast-action dried yeast
  • 180ml cold water
  • 250g salted Breton butter, cold but pliable
  • 200g caster sugar, plus extra for the tin

Method

  1. Mix the flour, salt, yeast and water into a shaggy dough, knead five minutes until smooth, then rest covered for one hour.
  2. Roll the dough to a rectangle about 20cm by 40cm. Beat the butter into a flat slab and lay it over two thirds of the dough.
  3. Fold in three like a letter, turn 90 degrees and roll out again. Chill 30 minutes.
  4. Roll out, scatter a third of the sugar across the surface, fold in three and chill 30 minutes. Repeat twice more until all the sugar is in.
  5. Roll to a square, cut into eight and press each piece into a heavily buttered and sugared muffin tin, pinching the corners into the centre. Prove one hour.
  6. Bake at 200C for 30 to 35 minutes until deep mahogany and bubbling. Turn out of the tins within two minutes or the caramel will glue them in.

Tip from the editors. Bake on a tray: the sugar boils over and burns onto an oven floor. Turning them out hot is the difference between a kouign-amann and a permanent fixture.

Where to eat kouign-amann

Kouign-amann in Rennes

Boulangerie Hoche ★ 4.2

€ BakeryClassic boulangerie with Breton viennoiserieThaborWalk-in only

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.

Worth the queueKouign-amann

TipRue Hoche holds this bakery, 16h30 and the Nabuchodonosor in one block; come hungry and compare kouign-amann.

Directions

Le Fournil des Halles ★ 4.1

€ BakeryBreton family baking across three generationsCentreWalk-in only

Le Fournil des Halles bakes a three-generation kouign-amann recipe near the Halles Centrales in Rennes, alongside far breton and buckwheat galettes.

Worth the queueKouign-amann, plain or apple

TipTheir kouign-amann is sold in packaging that keeps it three weeks, the one Breton pastry that survives a suitcase.

Directions

Maison Larnicol ★ 3.9

€€ BakeryKouignettes and Breton confectioneryCentreWalk-in only

Maison Larnicol stacks its bite-size kouignettes on Rue Le Bastard in Rennes, the Breton chocolatier founded by Meilleur Ouvrier de France Georges Larnicol.

Worth the queueKouignettes in a dozen flavours

TipThe kouignette is the travel-size kouign-amann; the rum-raisin and salted-caramel-apple versions are the ones to mix into a bag.

Directions

La Tête Enfarinée ★ 4.0

€ BakeryArtisan breads and AOP-butter pastryCentreWalk-in only

La Tête Enfarinée is a small artisan bakery on Rue de Coëtquen in central Rennes, folding its kouign-amann in AOP French butter, open Sunday mornings.

Worth the queueAOP-butter kouign-amann

TipOne of the few centre bakeries open Sunday morning; time it with the Criée market across the block.

Directions

Boulangerie Elluard ★ 4.0

€ BakeryOrganic-flour breads and viennoiserieSaint-HélierWalk-in only

Boulangerie Elluard bakes with organic flour on Rue Saint-Hélier in Rennes, an artisan shop between the station and the Vilaine known for its kouign-amann.

Worth the queueOrganic-flour kouign-amann

TipOn the walk from the station into town, this is the bread and pastry stop; mornings have the full range.

Directions

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