While Hurricane Iselle brought huge winds and massive destruction, Hurricane Ana was a bit more gentle, with heavy rain, but no wind. Since it wasn't much fun to be outside in such wet weather, Kalani and I decided to tackle a particularly futsy Bon Appetit recipe that we'd been thinking about for some time.
Kouign-amann are a crazy-rich French puff pastry that took us 8-hours (plus a 12-hour chilling) to make. While making them Kalani announced that nothing could be worth this much trouble. But when eating them the next morning he changed his mind and asked if he could have them for his birthday.
It started with a spin of the chore wheel. Kalani got "Make Dinner" and dutifully started flipping through Bon Appetit to find something to make. He chose the kouign-amann but it was so complicated that we didn't actually start it for over a month after shopping for it (it requires a richer European butter and apparently won't hold up with American butter in the mix; after my trip to Ireland, I get it).
We worked on the recipe from about 9am to 5pm. Most of the time was spent cooling the dough (90 minutes in the freezer/fridge for every 15 min of work). After the first couple hours we got to add the chilled "butter block"
Then more rolling, more folding, and more chilling:
Finally, at nearly 5pm they were cut, re-sugared, and put to rest in muffin tins for the remainder of the night:
The next morning we baked them and ate them:
Delicious!
Just in case you find yourself stuck inside for a full day:
http://www.bonappetit.com/video/how-to-make-kouign-amann
http://www.bonappetit.com/video/how-to-make-kouign-amann