A specialty of the town of Douarnenez in Finistère, Brittany where it originated around 1860, the pastry is attributed to Yves-René Scordia (1828–1878).

[1] The name comes from the Breton language words for 'bread' (kouign) and 'butter' (amann), and in 2011 the New York Times described it as "the fattiest pastry in all of Europe.

[3] Traditionally, kouign-amann is baked as a large cake and served in slices, although recently, especially in North America, individual cupcake-sized pastries (kouignettes) have become more popular.

[citation needed] Kouign-amann has been a staple pastry at many Japanese bakeries after becoming popular in the late 1990s.

[4][5] In 2014 episode 7 of series 5 of the BBC's The Great British Bake Off[6] featured kouign-amann.