Kouigns Amann

Final curtain call 

for Rose's Alpha Bakers.

Our fearless leader,

Marie,

thought it would be great fun

to once again make

the first recipe we

tackled 

upon commencing 

baking through

The Baking Bible,

namely this Kouigns Aman.

I did not share that sentiment

because the first time around was daunting,

but I understood the reasoning.

We've weighed

flour, sugar, butter

in all their various 

percentages and incarnations,

slogging along 

through recipes

that would fell many a baker

for two years and eleven days.

If memory serves correctly,

and that's a big if,

we only took one or two weeks 

worth of breaks.

Baking at this pace is grueling.

Missing a week, 

or weeks at a time,

is like falling off a horse;

best be pulling up those boot straps

and climbing right back into the saddle.

Marie never missed a beat

even when she traveled the world

with her personal photographer/husband

Jim.

He gets credit for sifting through our photos

when there were many superb

ones to choose from for the weekly roundup. 

I have loved seeing not only

my fellow Alpha's bakes

but photographs, as well.

Seriously,

many are magazine worthy.

So with

two years of baking under our belts

these should have been a snap,

right?

The dough is easy peasy

to mix up.

How such few ingredients

transform into 

KA's

is nothing short of alchemy.

After that it's a lot of 

folding and rolling and waiting.

The dough texture is 

fun to work with.

The butter behaved.

It's only when sugar

gets involved in the last steps

that rolling is a bit dicey.

And that's where swearing doubts

make themselves known.

Still,

with Rose's recipes,

it's often blind faith,

 keep calm and carry on.

There have been many

a time I could 

easily have cracked a bottle

of rum, brandy, whiskey, bourbon, Kahlua,

chambord, Grand Marnier

and whatever 

leftover  Baking Bible 

spirits are in the cupboard

when I was on the verge of baking implosion

but 

I'm not a big fan of alcohol

other than Amaretto

and oddly

Rose never called for Amartto.

If she did,

I drank the last of it and can't remember.

My six and half year old granddaughter

made good on her

promise to be here for the last bake.

Only she declared Blueberry muffins

needed to be made

because evidently,

as grandmother,

I set some sort of precedent 

without realizing it.

Grandma, remember how you always

made us blueberry muffins when we spent the night?

Next thing I knew it was tea party time.

Kouigns Amann had been demoted.

If I tackle these again,

it will be at the crack of dawn 

for this all day venture.

I will make a note to pull them out

at the least amount of baking time

and throw a foil tent over for the last

ten minutes.

Rose lists turning these into

French Toast

as a variation.

That seemed crazy to me

after all this effort

but

curiosity won out

And let me say,

Rose knows of which she speaks,

spectacular.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum