The right way to make kouign-amann

On a Sunday morning in the French coastal town of Douarnenez, a line snakes out the door of a bakery. This is a fairly common sight across the country, where picking up freshly baked bread is a daily ritual, but here people aren’t just buying a baguette. Most are still waiting to buy one of the Cousin Amanndubbed “Europe’s greasiest pastry”, which stand in stacks behind the counter, their laminated pastry glistening as they are picked up and slipped into a greaseproof paper bag.

Eaten hot, the cakes are an exercise in indulgence. The chewy, caramelized crust gives way to expose the flaky pastry inside, bursting with a rich, buttery flavor. Translated from the Breton language, kouign-amann literally means “butter cake”, which is appropriate, because of the six ingredients in the traditional recipe, butter appears in the highest amount.

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Kouign-amann is an institution in Douarnenez, a traditional fishing town located in the west of the French Brittany region, which was invented here about 160 years ago. The pastry was born out of necessity when the baker, Yves René Scordia, who owned a shop in the city, needed to replenish his stock in a hurry after selling the cakes. Finding that he had bread dough, butter and sugar, he combined the ingredients with the folding technique used for puff pastry, and the result is the kouign-amann.

The cake quickly became popular throughout Brittany and soon became known throughout France. However, it was often attributed to larger towns in Brittany such as Vannes, Saint-Malo or La Rochelle, and as it ended up being produced on an industrial scale and by bakers who approached or modified the recipe, the bakers of Douarnenez en font the traditional way felt that it had begun to move away from the quality of the original.

Therefore, in November 1999, 17 confectioners and bakers came together with a common passion for the specialty of their city to form the Association of the Kouign-Amann of Douarnenezwith the aim of promoting the cake and preserving its quality and the techniques used to make it.

Pascal Jaïn, baker, pastry chef and chocolatier, is a member of the association and produces kouign-amann in his bakery, Jain Bakery, in Douarnenez. For him, the cake is defined by the skill of those who prepare it.

“What makes kouign-amann so special is its manufacture, which is very simple – bread dough, butter and sugar – but it all depends on the technique,” said Jaïn. “All the members of the association use the same ingredients. The quantities may vary, but not so much. The most important thing is the method. In my bakery, we have three people who make kouign-amann and we can tell who made each one as and they come out of the oven.”

Traditionally, the cakes have no additional flavoring and are made to serve many slices, but smaller, individual sweets called. couignettes they have become more and more popular, as have the flavored versions. Jain embraces these changes, but is keen to ensure that the original version does not disappear.