Sweet Tooth — butter heaven at Kouign Amann

Butter + dough + sugar = Yes, please
Photo by Erika David

Hands down, one of my favourite bakeries in all of Montreal is none other than the buttery heaven that goes by Pâtisserie Au Kouign Amann. This Plateau mainstay dishes up some of the finest pastries your mouth will ever have the pleasure of meeting.

Everything available is on display, continuously baked fresh throughout the day. When each pastry looks and smells the part, just how are you supposed to choose one?

The solution is simple. Eat a pastry a day. Just make sure to start with their namesake pastry, the kouign amann. We clear?

I can’t even pronounce kouign amann, but the Breton words translate to “cake” and “butter,” respectively. It’s a butter cake! People buy it by the wheel, but individual wedges are also yours for the taking. This croissant-meets-mille-crêpes cake is made by layering dough and sugary, melted butter, finishing with the latter to create a golden, candy-like, caramelized shell in the oven. The sticky-sweet, crunchy surface gives way to soft, chewy, crêpe-like sheets of dough swollen with plenty of glorious butter. Positively rich and not too sweet with a kiss of salt, it’s one of the best $1.95 I have and will ever spend. ■

Pâtisserie Au Kouign Amann, 322 Mont-Royal Ave. E., Montreal, 514-845-8813

Erika David blogs about her food adventures in Montreal at This is Why We’re Fat. Follow her on Twitter @erikadavidMTL.