The crown jewel of any home or professional baker is the Kouign-Amann ,a lush and fairly complicated to make butter cake. It takes time and patience yet it has its rewards. It can even be a healing experience for some
Regular contributor Yewande Komolafe wrote about this magnificent cake in yesterday's New YorkTimes Food section.Making the Kouign-amman , the Breton words for butter cake is like a climber scaling Mt. Everest. Hard work to do , but there's a feeling of triumph when it's completed. For Ms. Komolafe creating this cake was also a healing process as well. She had first tried the cake in Montreal at a bakery that specializes in making them, weeks after her daughter had a serious and frightening Covid infection. within twelve hours of testing positive her litle girl had a fever so high that she developed febrile seizures. She lost consciousness and had to be rushed to the hospital. Ten hours later the child awoke wanting life to go back to normal. For her mother normal wouldn't return for a while Ms. Komolafe experienced a kind fo pervasive grief that folloowed her everywhere, even on their trip. The kitchen was her only refuge,.As she put it grief occupied all her senses but it neither aided or meddle in her cooking. She found an escape in the Kouign-amann. The patisserie's owner and chef Nicholas Henry let her make one in his kirchen. It helped her as making them six times since then has helped to dispel the grief that followed her.
Her recipe is not the bakery's original. The recipe 's steps are simple yet straightforward. There are three reipes , one for the dough, another for the butter itself (!) and the third is for the aromatic syrup that soaks it. It is a yeast based dough. It also has the optional toasted sesame oil in it too of you want a nuttier flavor. The butter part is for lamination and it's a combination of one and three quarter cups get good butter like Kerry Gold) sugar and Morton's salt. The syrup is a mix of granulated sugar, orange zest cinnamom, ground ginger and cinnamon along with cardomon pods and whole cloves, These last two have to be crushed so they can give more flavor.The dough is a standard one mixed together in a mixer with a dough hook. The most complicated steps belong to the butter.Its' ingredients have to be combined in a stand up mixer using a paddle attachment It then has to be spread into a round and chilled while the dough rises. After the syrup is cooked then itpoured and swirled in the bottom of a greased skillet which will be used to bake the Kouign -amann. Assembly is basically wrapping the dough around the butter to form a sort of envelope. In a nutshell, it's more folding and then pouring the syrup over it, spreading it with your fingers.It's first baked at forty five minutes in a 350 degree Farenheir oven and then flipped over. There's a second bake, with the cake being done when th e butter bubbling at the edges for an extra twenty to twenty five minutes. More syrup is added at this time. It's cut into wedges and served warm.
The Kouign -amann is the star of any professional or home kitchen. Try this recipe if you want to create a delicious and lush pastry. It may be difficult to create but well worth it.
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