Jodi and I went to Dominique Ansel Bakery after watching a segment on their Kouign Amman on the TV show Unique Sweets. The bakery, located in Soho, is heaven for anybody with a sweet tooth! Anyway, if you do not have a sweet tooth, they also have a lunch menu...
We went in the afternoon and we could clearly see that a lot of the cakes they made were already sold out! I was a bit disappointed because I was not only coming for the Kouign Amman, but also for the Paris-New York, a pastry that is a spin on a Paris-Brest (puff pastry with a hazelnut cream that I love - Dominique Ansel made it with peanut butter!).
Anyway, we came for their specialty: the Kouign Amman. So you probably wonder what this is! This is a cake from Bretagne, a region on the west coast of France, made with a croissant dough and layered with butter and sugar. If you eat it, do not tell your cardiologist because there is a lot of butter!
On the show, we got the impression that the Kouign Amman was small so we decided to order two of them...and a cake.
The Kouign Amman was divine! Buttery, flaky, airy with a bit of crunch from the sugar on the outer shell, sugar that caramelized for the most part. We literally inhaled it. I just wish they warm it up a bit as it seems it is the way to eat it. When I think that I had to come to New York to try it for the first time! It was expansive though: close to $6 a piece.
The cake we chose as the Paris-New York was sold out, was the religieuse.
A religieuse is a traditional pasty made of two cream puff stuffed either with chocolate or vanilla custard, topped by a chocolate frosting. Dominique Ansel made it differently: no chocolate but rose flower cream. Although I enjoyed the part with the frosting, I did not really liked the rose flower cream. So it was not the best choice.
With that, we got a hot chocolate to drink, but I found it too bitter...
I will definitely have to go back to that place to try their other pastries and have another Kouign Amman. I bet that going in the morning, for breakfast, would be the best time to eat them warm! Sacrebleu!
Enjoy (I did)!
And remember: I just want to eat!
