Monday, December 12, 2016

Kouigns Amann


Final curtain call 
for Rose's Alpha Bakers.
Our fearless leader,
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.
~
by
Rose Levy Beranbaum














1 comment:

  1. Wow, these Kouigns Amann look 'perfectly perfect', as someone once must have said sometime! And, certainly being accompanied by such a gorgeous granddaughter on that baking adventure must also have been encouraging and enlightening for you because the blueberry muffins also appear inspired.

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