The kouign-amann is a laminated Breton cake of bread dough, salted butter and sugar, folded and folded again until the sugar caramelises into a lacquered, shattering crust.

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.

Where to eat Kouign-amann in Rennes

5 editor picks for Kouign-amann in Rennes, ranked by editorial score. All Rennes signature dishes · Kouign-amann across every city.

  • Boulangerie Hoche

    Order Kouign-amann

    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.

    DetailsDirections

  • Le Fournil des Halles

    Order Kouign-amann, plain or apple

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

    DetailsDirections

  • La Tête Enfarinée

    Order AOP-butter kouign-amann

    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.

    DetailsDirections

  • Boulangerie Elluard

    Order Organic-flour kouign-amann

    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.

    DetailsDirections

  • Maison Larnicol

    Order Kouignettes in a dozen flavours

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

    DetailsDirections

Make it at home

Serves 85 hrAdvanced

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.

Editor tip. 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.

Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy.