A simple balsamic vinaigrette is drizzled over this caprese salad of peaches, heirloom tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella to create a delicious summer appetizer.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 35 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 kouign-amann |
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 2 ½ cups bread flour, divided
- 2 tablespoons melted butter, or more as needed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 sticks ice-cold unsalted butter, divided
- ⅔ cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
Instructions
- Make dough: Combine water, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Let rest until foamy, about 5 minutes.
- Add 2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and salt to yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until a very wet sticky dough forms.
- Dust work surface with remaining 1/2 cup flour. Turn dough out onto the floured surface. Knead, folding in excess flour as needed, until dough is soft, slightly sticky, and elastic. Place into a greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Make seasoned sugar: Mix together sugar and most of the sea salt in a bowl. Taste and add remaining salt if desired.
- Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter. Spoon some of the seasoned sugar into each cup and shake to coat. Turn tin over and return excess sugar to the bowl. Set the muffin tin aside until needed.
- Transfer dough onto a floured surface and press into a rough rectangle. Roll dough into a rectangle about 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick. Grate 1 stick ice-cold butter over dough, leaving a 1-inch border. Flatten butter using lightly floured hands. Fold rectangle widthwise into thirds. Press gently to square out the edges, then place onto a silicone-lined baking sheet. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Roll dough into a large rectangle again, pulling and stretching the corners as needed. Grate remaining stick ice-cold butter over the surface. Pat down with floured fingers and fold into thirds. Roll back out into a rectangle and fold into thirds. Repeat rolling and folding one more time. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Sprinkle a generous amount of seasoned sugar onto your work surface. Place dough onto sugar and sprinkle more sugar on top. Roll into a large rectangle about 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick, turning and topping with sugar between rolls.
- Use a pizza cutter to trim away uneven edges. Cut dough into 12 equal squares. Sprinkle more sugar on top. Lightly pinch each pastry into a crown shape by bringing all four corners to the center; place into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle more sugar on top. Let rest for 10 minutes.
- Bake in the preheated oven until browned and puffed, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer pastries to a cooling rack while still hot. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
- Substitute sea salt with kosher salt if desired.
- Shape dough trimmings and bake them on a separate baking sheet if desired.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 291 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 30 g |
| Cholesterol | 46 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 470 mg |
| Sugars | 12 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Division Champion purple ribbon at Alaska State Fair. 2023
Not as hard as I thought they would be and came out amazing. No idea how much salt some folks in these comments used but these arent close to being too salty at all. Absolutely perfect, if anything they are too sweet.
Amazing I could make this. The video and instructions were great!
for a first time making pastry, i felt this was a good recipe to start with. the video helped immensely and the final product came out almost identical to it. will be making this again.
So Totally Worth It!!!! So good and not that hard. The hardest part is grating the butter! 🙂
These are delightful and pretty easy. I use a King Arthur recipe for morning buns and this has beat that out for current tastious treat .. I will be adding in my next batch almond paste in the center just because.. maybe cream cheese and huckleberries.. anyway, thank you, yum.
Unbelievably tasty and really easy, takes some time but not too much skill. I struggle with pie crusts, 50% end up flaky and 50% end up tough. I had no problem with this , crumbly crisp outer layer, super flaky inside all the way to the delicious doughy bottom
The recipe was easy enough and the dough turned out amazing but the salt/sugar ratio is terrible and kind of ruined the whole thing. Everyone in my family thought these were extremely salty (my 6 year old begged for a drink of water they were so salty). I would make it again but put half as much salt at most. I understand they are supposed to be salty and sweet but this calls for way too much salt compared to Kouign-Amann I’ve had at bakeries.
These are amazing. They taste like a salted caramel croissant. I thought that since I had never made a laminated dough before, I would surely fail the first batch, but I didn’t! They turned out just fine, thanks to the excellent instructions and video. The hardest part for me was the grating of the frozen butter, so next time I may use butter sheets. Also, I used Fleur de sel for the salt and a teaspoon wasn’t quite enough for the dough. Next time I will use 1.5 teaspoons of Fleur de sel. They came out a little wonky looking, but tasted amazing!
i love that there is also a video showing exactly, how we should do it! ♥ thanks a lot for sharing! i love this pastry!
I followed the directions and video and these were a HUGE hit!! Just delicious!!! They take time, but aren’t hard – just follow the instructions. I’d intended to refrigerate the laminated dough overnight, but decided to stay up after midnight because I was so excited to see if they turned out. I will definitely be making these again.
Light, flaky layers. Loved the salted caramel effect of the seasoned sugar. I will definitely make it again with a filling such as pecans and chocolate! We also put lemon curd into the cooled pastries. The tang was perfect in an unexpected way. So many possibilities for this gem of a recipe!
My only complaint is that I made a dozen and refused to waste them so I ate them all over a course of three days. So delicious the video helped and made it so easy. Taste and adjust your sugar/ salt topping before you add it to make sure it’s not too salty or too sugary. My local bakery in Carmel, CA has them for $17 for three and now I make them myself! OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!
This is amazing!!!! Followed instructions exactly! Takes some time but not difficult at all. Enjoyed the process. Truly an incredible pastry! Will make again and again!
This was my first time ever making a true pastry, and figured I would mess is up royally. Somehow I nailed it. They looked and tasted really close to those at my favorite bakery. The video was very helpful.
Always have great results from this recipe. My love for baking of begins.
I’ve made these several times now. They are DELICIOUS. Given the time and effort involved you should absolutely spring for the expensive butter. The first time around I was unsure about using so much sugar mixture. Now I roll in and dust as much as I can. It’s like a candy pastry. Yum! We prefer ours on the salty side. This is probably the best pastry I’ve ever eaten… and I made it!
Absolutely worth the effort. I watched Chef John’s video a few times throughout the process, which was both entertaining and helpful, and I was very pleased with the end result.
It was really easy to make with few ingredients and the result is AMAZING, you just need time and it’s totally worth it. I made the 12 servings recipe, left some kouign amann only with sugar and added some blueberries covered in lemon juice and sugar as a filling for a couple of them and some chocolate hazelnut spread for the others. The butter was leaking from the top of the baking pan (10×14) in the oven, I recommend putting another pan at the bottom just in case to avoid the mess, and the queens almost touched each other so I could have made 15 servings easily for my pan.
Okay so I’ve made this 4 times now and they are fantastic. But I have now tweaked the recipe and have had some amazing success. Only unsalted butter, half of the amount of salt it listed. When I get to the part where I rolled it into sugar, I added brown sugar and cinnamon This last batch I made cinnamon apples – diced apple, cooked in a little butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. When I cut the pieces into squares before I put them in the muffin tin, I put a spoonful of the apples in the center and baked them that way. I’ll be experimenting with other fillings later but I love them. The original recipe is good! I just like the sweeter side. But this is my go to base recipe. It seems like a lot of work but they are so worth it.
I loved this. I added cream cheese, powdered sugar and blueberries to the middle and OMG… so delicious! My first try wasn’t pretty but the taste was outstanding!