If Three Sightings Make a Trend, Then Kouign Amman Is Hot
It's an easy enough trope in the news world: If hugging is the new hello for teenagers and the paunch is in, kouign amann (pronounced "queen ah-MAHN") is the darling of the pastry world.
So far this month, the Breton pastry has appeared on David Lebovitz's blog, in a Serious Eats post on a Patisserie Kouign Amann in Montreal, and in my hand, straight from the Honore Artisan Bakery in Ballard. That makes three, right?
The legendary Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé seems to have popularized the buttery pastry in the 1990s, and Jeffrey Steingarten recreated Hermé's recipe for an article on the chef he wrote for Vogue. Lebovitz, a former Chez Panisse pastry chef and A-list blogger, first wrote about kouign amann in 2005 and provided this recipe, which looks so freakin good that it may be tried this weekend. And the kouign amman has been one of Honore's specialties since the tiny Ballard pastry shop opened last summer.
Honore's kouign amman is a croissant-like oval with a papery shell, airy interior, and a crumbly, caramelized top layer of salted butter and sugar. A couple of Twitterers have suggested that the kouign amann from Colville St. Patisserie in Walla Walla is even better, but I have forced myself to adhere to a side-trip limit of 10 blocks to keep from "just popping over" for one of Honore's kouign amanns every time I'm north of the Cut.
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