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Cardamom Kouign Amman

Cardamom Kouign Amann

A classic laminated pastry with a sugary crunchy exterior and fluffy, layered interior is now updated with a decidedly Swedish twist.  I've added cardamom and pearl sugar to pay homage to the flavours of amazing Swedish Cardamom buns.  Best of two worlds!

Course Baking
Cuisine French
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 45 minutes
Servings 12

Ingredients

  • 1 package 2 1/4 teaspoon or 7 grams active yeast
  • 1/2 cup 105 g lukewarm water
  • 1 3/4 cup 250 g bread flour
  • 1 teaspoon 5 g sea salt
  • 14 tablespoons 1 3/4 sticks or 190 g cold salted butter, divided
  • 1/4 cup 60 g cold water (from the tap)
  • 3/4 to 1 cup 150 to 200 g granulated white sugar
  • 5 tbsp ground cardamom If you want to do a more traditional flavour, just use cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tbsp pearl sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. In glass measuring cup or small bowl, dissolve the yeast into the warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes, until the liquid starts to bubble.
  2. As the yeast liquid proofs, place the bread flour in the bowl of a food processor. Add salt and pulse the dry ingredients a few times to blend the salt in.
  3. Add 4 tablespoons (1/2 a stick or 57 g) of the butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks, and pulse until the butter is chopped into small bits and mixed into the dry ingredients (it’s OK if some of the butter is visible, but try to reduce them into small pebble size if possible).
  4. Cut the remaining butter into 1/2 inch chunks and add them to the food processor bowl. Pulse 2 times (yeah, there’ll totally be big fat chunks in the bowl, that’s OK).
  5. Add the cold water to the warm yeast liquid and mix together. Pour this into the food processor and pulse 3 times. Again, there will still be big chunks of butter and a dough will NOT form. That’s normal.
  6. Empty the entire content of the food processor on a clean surface well floured with all-purpose flour, and carefully (don’t cut yourself) remove the blade.
  7. Gather the dough into a ball with your hands (forming the dough by pressing it all together firmly), then push it on the surface and shape it into a rough rectangle.
  8. Toss some more flour under the dough and, with a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 12 x 15 inch rectangle with the long side facing your (it should be in landscape orientation).
  9. Try to make the rectangle edges and corners as even and square as possible. You’ll notice that there are streaks of butter in the dough. That’s totally cool. If the butter gets warm and sticky, just dust it with flour.
  10. Brush as much of the flour off of the dough with a pastry brush (or just blow on it if you don’t have a brush). The more dry flour that is on the dough, the harder it is for the dough to laminate.

  11. Fold the dough a third of the way DOWN into the centre (this is where a bench scraper would be handy, but you can do it without, try using a spatula). Brush off any flour from the bottom of the dough that you just folded over.

  12. Then fold the dough from the bottom side up and over your initial dough fold, as if folding a really long skinny letter. Brush off any flour that you can. You should have three layers and a really skinny 4 x 15 inch rectangle.

  13. Now take one end and roll the dough, as if it you are forming a huge cinnamon roll. Brush the dough as you roll it, trying to get as much flour off the dough as possible as you roll.

  14. You should end up with a fat roll. Flatten the roll from the top-side down, flattening all the layers, with the palm of your hand.

  15. Stick the flattened dough into a large ziplock bag and seal it. Let it rise for 30 minutes at room temperature.

  16. Once the 30 minutes are up, squish the dough down (it won’t rise much but it will feel a little squishy) with your hand through the ziplock bag and place it in the refrigerator. Let rest in there for 1 hour or overnight (I like overnight better for time management)
  17. Once the dough has rested and chilled, generously spray a standard 12-cup muffin tin with cooking oil. Place on a rimmed baking sheet.
  18. Take about 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) of the sugar and all of the cardamom and blend well in a small bowl. Sprinkle half of this mixture on a clean counter.
  19. Pull the dough out of the bag and place it on the sugar. Sprinkle the other half of the sugar mixture on top of the dough.
  20. Roll the dough out into a 21 x 15 inch rectangle. Again in landscape position.
  21. If you find the dough sticking to the surface of the counter or your rolling pin, either grab any of the sugar mixture that has been pushed out on the counter while rolling, or use the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar (you are basically using sugar as a replacement for bench flour).
  22. Try to get the rectangle edges and corners as square as possible.
  23. Once you’ve formed the rectangle, fold 1/3 of the dough from the right side to the center. Fold the left side over the two layers of dough, forming three layers, and a 7 x 15 inch rectangle.

  24. Roll the triple-layer dough out a bit, flattening it until you have a 13 x 15 inch rectangle. Now trim the edges of the rectangle by a 1/2 inch on all sides with a sharp knife. Use a metal ruler if you have one, or just free form it, cutting evenly in one smooth motion. Don’t saw back and forth. (A pizza cutter works great in this setting)

    You should have three layers of dough with no folded edges that is about 12 x 14 inches.

    Save the trimmings. Twist and knot them and bake along with the kouign amann.

  25. Now cut the dough into 3 x 3 1/2 inch squares; 3 rows and 4 columns.

  26. Take each square and “pinch” the dough inward with your fingers and place in the prepared muffin tin. Repeat with the remaining dough. The corners should have created points. For the classic kouign amann shape, take the corners and fold towards the centre. Not absolutely necessary, but looks cleaner.

  27. Cover the muffin tin with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 40 minutes.

  28. About 20 minutes into the rise, turn the oven on to 400˚F to preheat it (or earlier if you oven takes a long time to heat up). Once the 40 minutes are up, the kouign amann dough should look puffy (but it won’t have risen much).

  29. Take the plastic wrap off.  Sprinkle each pastry with some of the pearl sugar.  Try and get most of them to land so that they are visible! Place in the oven.

  30. Reduce the heat to 350˚F and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the edges of the kouign amann are a rich dark brown. The sugar should caramelize well.

  31. Using an small offset spatula or two butter knives immediately remove the kouign amanns from the muffin tin to a wire cooling rack. Do not let them sit very long in the muffin tin, as they caramelized sugar will start to cool and harden and stick to the pan. Let cool on wire rack and serve.

  32. These are best served immediately. However you can successfully reheat them the next morning. Use an oven or toaster oven (not a microwave) set to 400F. Warm through for about 4 minutes. Allow to cool a moment to firm up.

Recipe Notes

You can go a more tradtional route and replace the cardamom with cinnamon.  And omit the pearl sugar.

Sometimes I will stuff a little piece of halva in the middle.  Or how about Nutella!?

Special Equipment:

Food Processor, Rolling Pin, Pastry Brush, Metal Ruler (optional but recommended), Bench scraper (optional but recommended), Standard 12-cup muffin tin, Wire cooling rack

Recipe inspired by Eat The Love's Kouign Amann