Category:
Desserts, Baked Goods

Courtesy of Alex Manley, Elizabeth Street Café

Photography by Knoxy

Easy

For the dough:

357 grams flour
267 mL milk
10 grams instant yeast
1 pinches salt

For the bourrage (stuffing):

230 grams Plugrá butter, slightly softened

To roll:

Granulated sugar
Gray sea salt

Breton Butter Cake (Kouign-Amann) Directions

Preheat the oven to 360°. Put all the ingredients for the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix for 2 minutes on low. Turn to medium and mix a further 8 to 10 minutes. Let the dough rest in the mixing bowl at room temperature for 45 minutes.

Prepare the bourrage by pounding the butter between 2 silicone baking mats until it is a rectangle about 1/3-inch thick. Using a bench scraper, shape the butter into a neat rectangle about 5 by 7 inches. If it is very soft, refrigerate it for a couple of minutes. The bourrage should be malleable but not mushy.

Roll out the dough so that it is about 11 by 8 inches. Place the bourrage on the lower half of the dough. Fold the dough over the butter and pinch the edges together. This is called a “lock in.”

Sprinkle the work surface liberally with the granulated sugar and lightly with the salt. Roll out the dough (with the bourrage inside) into a rectangle 2 times as long as it is wide then fold it into thirds, like a letter. Repeat this rolling and folding 3 times, ending with a square of dough 3/8-inch thick after each repetition. Keep the work surface well coated with granulated sugar and sprinkled lightly with salt, replenishing both as needed.

Place a square piece of parchment paper into a pie pan so that the edges hang over and the entire surface of the pan is covered with the paper. Place the dough in the pan and tuck the edges of the dough underneath itself so that it nestles nicely into the pan in a circular shape. Bake until caramelized, about 15 to 25 minutes.