Pure butter recipes | Destination Pays bigouden, Bretagne – Site officiel de l'office de tourisme

The pancake

Endlessly customisable, the crêpe is Brittany’s favourite meal, dessert, snack and even breakfast.

©Crêperie Beurre Sukr - Penmarc'h |A. Lamoureux

Recipe for 4 people

Ingredients :

250 g flour
½ litre milk
50 g melted butter
4 eggs
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons sugar

Steps:

Mix the flour, salt and sugar.
Make a well and pour in the eggs.
Stir gently. When the mixture becomes thick, add the milk a little at a time, then stir. The mixture should be fluid.
Then add the melted (cooled) butter.
If you have a billig, that’s perfect! Otherwise, cook the crêpes in a lightly oiled frying pan. Pour a small ladleful of batter into the pan and use the ladle to spread the batter over the entire surface.
Tip: it’s when the edge of the crêpe turns red that you know it’s time to turn it over.
Leave to cook for a minute on the other side and you’re done!

The kouign

A kouign is a small, puffy pancake that looks like a pancake. It’s made from a recipe very similar to pancake batter, with baker’s yeast to give it a brioche flavour.

Recipe for 8 people (about thirty kouigns)

Ingredients

1 kg flour
500g sugar
6 eggs
1 litre of milk
1 cube of baker’s yeast (approx. 42g)

Steps:

Warm the milk in a saucepan.
Crumble the yeast cube.
In a very large bowl, beat the whole eggs with the sugar by hand.
Gradually add the flour, eggs and sugar. When the dough becomes quite thick, add a little milk to make it easier to mix. Alternate until there is no more milk or flour.
Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave it in a warm place (next to the fireplace or heater, in a pan of hot water, at the bottom of your bed, or an unstoppable but more modern method: in a car exposed to the sun).
Leave the dough to rise for two or three hours. Be careful: in a hot environment, it may overflow!
Then pour a ladleful of batter onto a buttered or oiled billig (180° approx.) or frying pan (medium heat). Leave to cook for about a minute (the bubbles will appear slowly), then turn it over.
Cook for about a minute on the other side too, so that the inside is cooked through.

Caramel with salted butter

On crêpes, kouigns, or in a Breton cake, salted butter caramel adapts to the most gourmet cravings.

Ingredients :

160 g sugar
80 g semi-salted butter
200 g full cream

Steps:

Pour the sugar into a saucepan.
Over a low heat, leave the sugar to caramelise without stirring (don’t touch it yet).
Then add the semi-salted butter and stir until thickened.
Once the mixture has thickened, add the full cream.
Leave to cook for around 5 minutes over a low heat, while continuing to stir.
Leave the caramel to warm up for 20 minutes. Yes, good things take patience!

Breton cake

A real childhood memory, Breton cake is a must. With its golden crust and delicate buttery flavour, it can be enjoyed at any time of day. It can even be topped with salted butter caramel. It’s simply divine! So get cooking!

Ingredients

750g flour
500g sugar
500g melted butter
1 sachet baking powder
2 packets vanilla sugar
9 egg yolks (8 in the pastry and 1 for browning)
A small jar of salted butter caramel
1 pinch of salt
A splash of rum

Steps:

Mix the sugar, salt, vanilla sugar and rum with the egg yolks and melted butter.
Put the yeast in the flour and fold it into the above mixture. Use a whisk at first, then a spatula. When the mixture comes away from the bowl, it’s ready.
Divide the dough in two.
Spread the first dough in the bottom of the tin and press down by hand.
Empty the small jar of salted butter caramel into the centre and spread lightly.
Cover with the second pastry, spread and smooth with the back of a spoon previously dipped in hot water, so that the top of the pastry becomes smooth.
Brush with egg yolk and with the back of a fork, make designs on the top.
Bake for ½ hour at 200 degrees and ½ hour at 150 degrees (depending on the oven).

Kouign des gras

Kouign des gras, halfway between bread and brioche, originated in the Bigouden region. This Mardi Gras speciality, which is also found in Cap Sizun and the Douarnenez region, has been around since the 1930s.

Ingredients :

700 g wheat flour
200 g butter
400 g caster sugar
1 sachet baker’s yeast
20 cl milk
5 eggs
1 pinch coarse salt
100 g sultanas soaked in rum

Steps:

Melt the butter in the milk in a large bowl.
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and eggs.
Add the “butter-milk” and mix by hand. The result is a fairly sticky dough, which isn’t very practical but it’s normal!
Cover the terrine with a clean cloth and leave to stand in a warm place for 2 hours.
Soak the raisins in the rum during this time.
Add the sugar and drained raisins and mix well.
Brush with egg yolk (optional, but recommended).
Bake for 45 mins at gas mark 6, then 10 mins at gas mark 4. Do not overcook.