Kitchen Adventures: Kouign Amann

Lord knows I love butter (mon péché mignon, as the French call it, along with extra dry gin martinis and chocolate in the middle of the night). We all know the French REALLY love butter. So when my coworker (let's call him A for now) made me this bready, wonderful, buttery-rich dessert, I just KNEW I had to try and make it myself. Hailing from Douarnenez, in the Finistère region of France, this Breton bread-cake is horrible for your heart and waistline but so, so good in your mouth.

The premise is simple - it's a pastry made of basic bread dough laminated (layered) with oodles and oodles of butter. The technique, however, requires practice and very very cold butter (frozen if possible), so that the layers come out nice and even. Mais, ne vous découragez pas! Practice makes perfect.

Here's A's version:

For the Dough (also makes a nice basic bread or pizza dough all by itself)
800g all-purpose flour
25g sea salt
30g butter, softened
15g fresh yeast
400mL water

1. Prep the yeast. You can take a little bit of tepid-warm (NOT hot) water and a teaspoon of sugar, and mash the fresh yeast gently with a fork in a bowl. Set aside. In a few minutes, this should look frothy and smell a bit like beer.
2. Combine the salt, flour and butter. Incorporate the water, little by little, and add the yeast (do not add yeast and salt at the same time - the yeast will die), kneading into a firm dough.
3. Knead into a ball in the bowl; cut a little "X" on top, cover with saran wrap and leave to double in volume in a warm (but not overly hot) place, about 30-60 minutes.

For the Filling

550g butter, unsalted

400g brown sugar

STOP! BEFORE YOU START, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A VERY VERY COLD, AND I MEAN COLD, WORK SURFACE (I USED A FROZEN GRANITE CHEESE SERVING STONE). IT ALSO HELPS TO FREEZE THE BUTTER.

1. Roll out the dough about 0.5" (1cm) thick.
2. Cut the butter into slices, and assemble to make a butter "sheet" to fit about half the surface area of the dough from the previous step. Dust with sugar, then fold the dough over. Roll out the dough again.
3. Repeat the process until you have used up all the butter and the sugar. At this point, your dough should look layered, with butter and sugar in between the layers.
4. You can cut a square about 6"x6" (15cm x 15cm) and put in a cake pan (fold in the edges to form a circle), or cut strips, roll them up and put them in a muffin pan as I did.
5. Let the dough rest for about half an hour before baking at 180 degrees Celsius (~350 Fahrenheit), until golden brown. Flip over so the other side can caramelize as well; continue baking until a golden brown color is reached (baking times will vary - a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean).

Et voilà, Kouign Amann. It's seriously so so good. Mine turned out a bit funny looking as the butter got too hot and didn't layer perfectly, but it was delicious nonetheless. Try it with a cup of coffee... You'll be convinced.

As I mentioned before, you can use the basic dough to make bread too, see Exhibit A in all its glory:

Super easy, and quick enough to include as a side to a weekday dinner! Just remember to add a small container of water in the oven for moisture when baking, so you don't get overly crispy bread.

St. Patrick's Day Nutella filled Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

It's almost St.Patrick's Day which means it's time for drinking to oblivion, getting rich through leprechauns, and all things green!  I thought a lot about what I'd want flavour of green cupcake I wanted to make and had a long debate between Green Tea and Mint. In the end, Mint won because obviously, it is the most delicious! Especially with Chocolate. 

Here's how to make Nutella Filled Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes: 

Ingredients for the Cupcake Base: 

- 1/2 cup of Butter, softened

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1 cup Flour

- 1 an Egg

- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

- 1/4 cup of Cocoa Powder
- 1/2 tsp of Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp of Baking Powder
- A small small pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup of Sugar

Ingredients for the Cupcake Frosting
- 1 cup of Butter
- 4 cups of Confectionary Sugar
- 1 tsp of Vanilla
- Few drops of Mint/Peppermint Extract
- 4 tbs Whipping Cream (I couldn't find anything but Nutriwhip so I had to improvise a little bit- if you don't know how much Whipping Cream/Nutriwhip you should put, try the frosting - if you've ever tasted cupcake frosting, it'll be obvious to you)

Instructions for the cupcake base: 


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

1. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Beat together the Butter and the Sugar until fluffy.
3. In a different bowl, mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and the salt.
4. Pour the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture, but alternate between the dry ingredients and the milk - pour half the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture, then the milk, then the rest of the dry ingredients.
5. Pour the mixture into the muffin cups - fill the muffin cups 3/4 of the way.
6. Shove into oven and bake for around 15 minutes.
7. Let cool 2 minutes and fill a decorating bag with Nutella - poke a hole into the top of the cupcake and squeeze the Nutella in.
8. Let cool some more. 

Instructions for Cupcake frosting: 

1. Beat together Butter and Sugar until fluffy.
2. Add the Vanilla and Mint/Peppermint Extract.
3. Add the whipping cream (you can add it a little bit at a time if you're worried about the consistency of the frosting)
4. Fill a decorating bag with your delicious frosting.
5. Make a swirl and start decorating! Add some chocolat chips for extra deliciousness!