When I checked out the Salt Lake City library last week I also ate at this scrumptious place across the street called Les Madeleines (216 East 500 South, very tiny sign).

Les Madeleines

Les Madeleines was actually the reason I went over there in the first place. I’d first gotten interested in trying this place when I was helping ring a woman up at Ten Thousand Villages. We had bonded over dark chocolate (of course) and were swapping food stories. She mentioned that she had just finished travelling through Europe (jealous) and that she loved Kouing-aman pastries. She said the closest she’d had to European quality was the Kouing-aman at Les Madeleines. Now I had no idea what a Kouing-aman was, nor had I ever tasted one.  But that woman sold me on it. I had to try one.

So what is a Kouing-aman? Allow me to wikipedia it for you: “A [Kouing-aman is a] round crusty cake, made with a dough akin to bread dough with sugar sprinkled between layers. The resulting cake is slowly baked until the butter puffs up the dough (resulting in the layered aspect of it) and the sugar caramelizes. The name derives from the Breton words for cake (“kouign”) and butter (“amann”).”

It looks like this:

Kouing-aman and pistachio button from Les Madeleines

And it’s delicious. Flaky and sugary on the outside, soft and delicious dough on the inside. I was glad I made the trip; I can see why it’s their specialty.

You may have also noticed that I couldn’t resist picking up a pistachio macaroon. I also got to taste a few other treats thanks to my friend who came with me. She decided she wanted to sample a little bit of everything and, lucky for me, she also shared them all with me.

More delicious treats from Les Madeleines

It was a great pastry splurge. My favorites were probably the Kouing-aman and the black and white cookie (simple, but I was in a cookie mood).  Now I just need to try their lunch menu…

Even our leftovers were wrapped up in a cute little box.

Currently: getting over my boggle obsession ( I downloaded it on my phone a little while ago). It was getting dangerous there for a little while.