On my recent trip to southern France, I discovered some pastries that are practically better than sex. I think I bought them from a small store in the town of Menton, the easternmost town in the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera). Poking around online, I see that I could have bought them in Paris as well.
They are only about 2.25" in diameter, incredibly rich, very sweet and buttery, and come in several flavors. Even one bite comes very close to melting in your mouth.
From the link, I think what I had were the “Kouignette natures.” If you order them online, they cost a whopping 6 euros for a box of 4. Including shipping, that comes to 15 euros, or over $21 (OMFG!!!). Needless to say, I want to try making them myself.
Here’s a recipe with detailed instructions that I think is along the lines of what you’re looking for.
However, it’s in French. If that’s no problem for you, then go ahead and bonne chance. If a translation would help, let us know and I (or some more accomplished reader of recettes francaises) will try anglicizing it for you.
The strange thing is that all these recipes are somewhat salty, yet the ones I had were just sweet and buttery. I’ll have to make some, to see if they’re the same thing.
None of the recipes look exactly like what I had, so I’ve decided to order some from the original online store. You have to click on “Kouignettes,” and each time you click on it, the flavors change. I’m getting 8 different flavors, and I plan to freeze most of them.
They were just featured on Chowhound (Long Live the Kouign). You can buy some if you will you be visiting Oakland, Santa Monica, Seattle, Salt Lake City, or Beverly Hills anytime soon. The article also linked to a recipe here.
Kouign-amann and its offshoots are made with salted butter, but it’s not really a popular kind of butter outside of bretagne/normandie, so I guess people have adapted the recipes outside of these areas, which is why I would guess yours weren’t salty tasting.
Perhaps in France. In America, salted butter is very common, to the point that every television cook I’ve ever seen makes a big deal out of needing unsalted butter. Alton Brown even explained it as if he didn’t expect his target audience to know what the heck he was talking about.
I’ve lived for about three months in the South of France. There’s always a large selection of butter in every store, including salted, half-salted (demi-sel), and if I recall correctly, honey butter. They just might use/not use salted butter for any particular recipe in that region.