Making Kouign-Amann at home – and learning how to pronounce it

After tackling croissants for the first time using Claire Saffitz’s sage guidance, I knew her Kougin-Amann recipe, while challenging, would be equally successful! She knows how to write a recipe, and her YouTube videos are always a huge help! If you’ve attempted croissants, the process will be familiar: butter is encased in yeasted dough, then rolled and folded repeatedly to create all those beautiful layers. The difference is kouign-amann incorporates sugar into the final folds and coats the dough with even more before baking. The sugar caramelizes on the outside while the buttery layers puff up so you get crisp, sticky edges surrounding a tender, flaky center. They were perfectly sweet and I could not stop sneaking them like handfuls of popcorn. And thanks to making these, I now know how to passably pronounce the name without embarrassment or the look of disgust I receive when I call them “koogen amann.” For the record, Claire says it “kween-ah-mahn!” Book: Dessert Person, page…