kouing aman

A couple of months ago I was flipping channels and landed on the Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate show.  The theme was "salty" and husband and wife chefs from someplace like Tennessee came on, positively raving about this sugary, salty, crunchy, flaky, gooey pastry called a "kouing aman" ... from Salt Lake City.  It was so complicated - so many layers of pastry pounded with butter - that they would never attempt to make it themselves so they only had it when they were in SLC.  Which was not very often, obviously, being from Tennessee and all. 

Ever since I saw that show, I wanted one of those kouing amans.  I knew where the bakery, Les Madeleines, was and everything - right next to the public library - I just never got around to stopping by.  But when I went out to lunch on Friday with my work-neighbor Jody, and she suggested we stop in at Les Madeleines afterwards for a treat, I knew exactly what I was going to get.

They're not cheap, these kouing amans.  It takes 9 hours to make them (according to the girl who boxed them up for us in the cutest little white winged boxes) and it comes out in the $5 pricetag.  Still, when I dug in, it was so worth it.  Crunchy with the carmelized sugar on the outside, the pastry pulls apart in layers that are sweet and slightly salty and soft in the center.  The salt keeps it from being overly sweet and the butter ...  Well, let's just say there's a lot of butter in there.  Soooooo good.