The kouign amann (pronounced queen ah-mon) is finally getting the national day of recognition it so strongly deserves. These crispy croissant cupcake pastries were invented in Brittany during a flour shortage and a butter surplus. It's a piece of history you can taste! And now they've got a spot on the calendar, or on an Internet calendar website at least.
That's thanks to San Francisco's Belinda Leong of b. patisserie, whose iterpretation of the pasty has landed spots on not one, but two lists of "Things To Eat In SF Before You Die" (7x7 and Thrillist).
The completely made-up but nonetheless delicious stunt was approved by the National Day Calendar. For an example of that site's fine work, note that today is National Martini Day.
To celebrate the new holiday, b. patisserie will be pulling 12 different kinds of kouign amman from the oven. The patisserie traditionally fills them with sugar, which caramelizes around the pastry, or else chocolate or other seasonal items like pumpkin.
But for one day only they'll run the gamut with "Lemon Lime, Maple Bacon, Black Sesame, Vanilla Bean, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Cinnamon Sugar, Pistachio Strawberry, Chocolate Hazelnut, Speculoos (!!!), Coffee, and Tradition Breton." Also! Kouign amann filled with ice cream will be making an appearance in the afternoon. And last, kouignettes, which I'm just guessing are mini kouign amann, will round out the offerings.10% of proceeds from all sales will go to the charity Family House.
Here's what the assortment looks like all boxed together:
And this is what they looked like when they were being formed:
The Lower Pac Heights pastry oasis, often quite crowded, stands to be all the more so tomorrow. But soon enough we'll have B. On the Go, a b. patisserie lunch spin-off to look forward to!
