Caramelized Honey and Saffron Kouign-Amann Recipe

Ingredients
Equipment
Directions
FAQs
Find answers to your most pressing questions about this delicious recipe right here.
This luxurious pastry requires bread flour, instant yeast, salt, sugar, water, saffron threads, milk, cold unsalted butter for lamination, high-quality honey, and additional sugar for folding. These ingredients create the signature buttery, flaky layers with distinctive saffron flavour.
Learn how to cook Caramelized Honey and Saffron Kouign-Amann by creating a laminated dough infused with saffron, then folding in butter and caramelized honey. The process involves multiple folding techniques to create dozens of layers, followed by cutting, shaping into muffin tins, and baking until golden brown. While time-intensive, the technique produces bakery-quality pastries with exceptional flavour.
Insufficient lamination is often the culprit. Ensure your butter remains cold but pliable throughout the folding process. If it's too warm, it melts into the dough; too cold, it breaks and punctures layers. Precise temperature control and adequate resting periods between folds are crucial for success.
Unlike croissants or Danish pastries, Kouign-Amann incorporates sugar directly between the laminated layers, creating distinctive caramelization. This Breton specialty (literally "butter cake" in the regional language) features a higher butter-to-dough ratio and develops a crunchier exterior with moist interior layers.
Yes! After the final turn and before cutting, you can refrigerate the dough overnight. Alternatively, freeze cut, shaped pastries for up to 3 weeks. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before final proofing and baking. This makes the complex recipe more manageable and provides fresh-baked pastries on demand.
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