Armenian Pastries for April’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge was hosted by Jason at Daily Candor.  We were able to choose between two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, so instead of being a typical overachiever, I stuck with just one, the nazook (although to my credit, I chose the more difficult of the two!)  I would compare it to a filled croissant.  Mine were not nearly as pretty as others I have seen, but I have zero complaints about the taste!  The traditional filling is vanilla, but Jason said that his Aunt Aida, who is an expert on nazook, condones anything but chocolate.  I decided to try three different fillings: traditional vanilla, cinnamon, and fig almond.  I made the fig with my own tastes in mind, so I was surprised to find that my favorite was the cinnamon!  I really enjoyed this challenge– the nazook was really tasty, but not something I would have ever thought to make.

To save you my pain, I will note now that the pastry dough needs 3-5 hours in the fridge!  Also, the easiest way to get butter to room temperature is to leave it in the kitchen for a while, not to try to speed things up… in your oven.  Trust me.

Nazook

From Jason’s Aunt Aida 

Ingredients
Pastry dough

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 2½ teaspoons (1 packet, ¼ oz) active dry yeast
• 1 cup sour cream (8 oz) – (I used light because it’s what we had in the house)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter (room temperature)

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup (1½ sticks) softened butter (room temperature)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Additional fillings of choice (for mine this meant cinnamon, dried fig and almond extract)

Wash

• 1-2 egg yolks (for the wash; alternatively, some yogurt, egg whites, or a whole egg)

Directions:

Make the Pastry Dough

1. Put the sifted flour into a large bowl; mix in the dry yeast.
2. Add the sour cream and the softened butter.  Using your hands, or a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, work it into a dough.
3.  If using a standing mixer, switch to a dough hook. If making manually, continue to knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl or your hands. If it remains very sticky, add some flour, a little at a time.
4. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 3-5 hours, or overnight if you like.

Make the filling
Mix the flour, sugar, and the softened butter in a medium bowl; *add the vanilla extract. Mix the filling until it looks like clumpy, damp sand. It should not take long. Set aside.

*If making several fillings, separate into smaller bowls before adding the vanilla and add your ingredients of choice to each.

Make the nazook

1. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F
2. Cut the refrigerated dough into quarters.  Form one of the quarters into a ball. Dust your working surface with a little flour.  Roll out the dough into a large rectangle or oval. The dough should be thin, but not transparent.
3. Spread 1/4 of the filling mixture across the rolled-out dough in an even layer. Try to spread the filling as close as possible to the edges on the short sides, but keep some of pastry dough uncovered (1 inch) along the long edges.
   
4. From one of the long sides, start slowly rolling the dough across. Be careful to make sure the filling stays evenly distributed. Roll all the way across until you have a long, thin loaf.
   
5. Pat down the loaf with your palm and fingers so that it flattens out a bit (just a bit).
6. Apply your egg yolk wash with a pastry brush.
   
7. Use your crinkle cutter (or knife) to cut the loaf into 10 equally-sized pieces. Put onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
   
8. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the tops are a rich, golden brown.
9. Share with your coworkers so you don’t eat the entire batch in a single sitting.

Johanna