Alpha Bakers: Kouign Amann, revisited

For the catch up week, I made Kouign Amann.

I ordered some metal rings from Food Service Warehouse and wanted to try it out. These are actually listed as hash brown rings, which I find kind of funny that I bought them to bake Kouign Amann, but they are almost the right size - 4 inch x 1 inch (instead of 4 inch x 3/4 inch that Rose specified). I also like that they are cheaper than the usual pastry ring. I figured that if they can be used for hash browns means that they would withstand heat and would work in the oven at 400 degrees, but just to make sure I baked one of them by itself in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes - before using them for Kouign Amann. It stayed intact after 10 minutes so that's good.

The nice thing about making this again 2 months after the first one is the instructions feels very familiar. And the nice thing about making this after conquering the Panettone is that this feels so easy! I never thought I would every say that about pastries. I started at 8 AM and took them out of the oven at 3.30 PM and it felt like a breezy. I was even able to squeeze in some house cleaning, went out with husband for some sushi, made the gingersnaps cookie dough, and some TV knitting.

For the high altitude adjustment I added a couple of tablespoon of water to the dough. The dough came together with no issue but they didn't feel very tacky to the touch and the bottom part didn't stick to the mixer bowl like Rose said it would,  so I added a tablespoon of water, knead it by hand, and ended up adding another tablespoon of water. Total water added: 2 tablespoon.

I really liked these hash brown rings. They are taller than my homemade foil ring and made the Kouign baked higher. They are also a breeze to clean, which surprised me. I thought it would be sticky and gooey but no. The Kouign slided right off.

For portion control, I gave 6 of them away and kept 2. Ate one as it came out of the oven and reheat the other the next day. I followed Rose's instructions of preheating it in the oven. It tasted just as good as the freshly baked one!

My kitchen was pretty cool so these took 2 hours to double and rise.

Yummy-licious.

Alpha Bakers is a group of bakers who are baking through The Baking Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum's latest cookbook. Come check out the rest of the group at Rose's Alpha Bakers.

Click here for a full listing of all the recipes we are baking.