Kouign-amann (pronounced [ˌkwiɲ aˈmãn) is a sweet Breton cake, made with laminated dough. It is a round multi-layered cake, originally made with bread dough (nowadays with viennoiserie dough), containing layers of butter and incorporated sugar, similar in fashion to puff pastry, albeit with fewer layers. The cake is slowly baked until the sugar caramelizes and the recipe's butter expands the dough, resulting in its layered structure similar to a muffin-shaped, caramelized croissant.
A specialty of the town of Douarnenez in Finistère, Brittany, where it originated around 1860.
The name comes from the Breton language words for cake (kouign) and butter (amann).