Words by Manon Lagrève. Photo by Nassima Rothacker
This French butter cake was one of our favorite cakes we’d have in France. There was even a fabulous one without apples they sold at the French frozen market, Picard. We never found a good recipe for it, and I’d never had it with apples before, so I’m curious how they change it. Now that it’s apple season, Manon shares her fall version. “Meaning literally ‘butter cake’ in Breton (the Celtic language of Brittany), this is our number one delicacy. Here I have made it with some additional slices of apple in between the layers, creating even more caramelized butteriness.”
For more French recipes to make at home, get her book Chez Manon here.
Kouign Amann Aux Pommes
Equipment
- 23cm (9in) cake tin
Ingredients
- 275 g (9 1/2oz / 2 1/4 cups) strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- 10 g (1/4oz / 2 tsp) melted butter, plus extra for greasing
- 4 g scant 1 tsp sea salt
- 8 g (1 sachet) active dried yeast
- 180 ml (6fl oz / 3/4 cup) water
- 225 g (8oz) salted butter
- 200 g (7oz / heaped 1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
- 2 cooking apples, thinly sliced with a mandoline
Instructions
- Combine the flour, melted butter, salt, yeast and the water in a large mixing bowl, and knead the dough for 8 minutes.
- Flatten out the butter into a 15cm (6in) square.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll it into a 30cm (12in) square using a rolling pin. Place the butter square on top of the dough and close the pastry over the top like a pocket. Roll the dough into a long rectangle. Make the first turn by folding the bottom of the rectangle up to the middle of the rectangle and fold the top of the rectangle to cover that half. Transfer to the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
- Repeat the rolling and folding, but this time scatter the dough rectangle with half of the sugar and half of the thinly sliced apples. Transfer to the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (200°C/400°F/gas 6). Grease a 23cm (9in) cake tin with butter.
- Roll out the dough to a large rectangle once more and generously sprinkle it with the remaining sugar and apples, then roll it up as if you were making cinnamon buns, then cut 6 large rolls. Place the rolls in the buttered tin and cook for 40 minutes until golden.
Recipe published with permission by Chez Manon by Manon Lagrève (Quadrille, RRP £26). Photography © Nassimo Rothacker.