Have you ever heard of Kouign Amann (it’s pronounced so that it sounds like Queen Uh-mon). It’s this delicate French pastry where you actually fold in a flattened stick of butter as well as sugar between thin layers of pastry almost like a croissant. It takes a long time to make, but I’ve been making a shortcut version I like to call Kouign Amann for the Lazy Baker that takes no time at all.
I actually discovered this pastry reading someone’s blog. I can’t remember who it was, but it sent me down a rabbit hole to research all about this amazing-looking dessert. The original pastry is a full size “cake” that you cut into pie slices. I was so intrigued, I spent an entire day making it myself from scratch. It was amazing!
I finally got to try the real thing at a bakery, an Asian bakery of all places. They call it a Caramel Danish and make it in a cupcake size pastry. It’s heavenly!
You can probably find one of these bakeries near you. It’s called 85C Bakery. They have all kinds of yummy treats. You grab a tray and walk through and grab your pastries and then check out at the counter. They package them all up for you. We stop by occasionally and stock up on all kinds of yummy treats.
I was trying to figure out how to make the mini cupcake version, and I saw people were doing cheater versions of the Kouign Amann with crescent dough and puff pastry. I didn’t think crescent dough would be as good as puff pastry, and I just happened to have some in the freezer.
Table of Contents
Kouign Amann for the Lazy Baker
Ingredients
- 2 sheets puff pastry
- 1 stick of butter, melted
- 1/2 cup sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.
- Cut 12 squares of parchment paper. Lay them out on the table near where you are working.
- Dust the surface with flour and roll out each puff pastry to a rectangle about 13 x 9 inches.
- The puff pastry in half and cut 6 squares out of one half and 6 strips out of the other.
- Dip the squares into butter and then sugar and lay on parchment paper.
- Dip each strip into butter and then sugar and roll up and lay each one in the center of a square.
- Lift up the parchment paper and place into each well of a cupcake tin.
- Once they are in the tins, gently pinch the puff pastry together.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes, until golden brown.
- Allow to cool before enjoying.
Stay tuned! After going down another rabbit hole researching this dessert, I discovered some people stuff their Kouign Amann. I don’t know why it never occurred to me, but let me tell you — that is delicious!
I’ll be sharing a stuffed shortcut version very soon. You will just love it!