Daring Bakers: Armenian Nazook

The Daring Bakers' April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were 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.

I was planning on being ambitious and making both of these, but then my procrastination for doing school work caught up to me. I was pretty excited to make something that had "pastry dough" in it. It was actually pretty easy to make, despite the word "pastry" being in it. For some reason I think something like that would be very tricky to make. These little guys were flaky and delicious. They were not as sweet or flavor packed as I was expecting though. I made half with no nuts and half with. The ones with pecans had a lot more flavor. The great thing is you can really add anything to the filling of these. I think jam would be delicious because I have been smothering them with it anyways. If you added cheese, they would make a great appetizer. Enjoy!


xo


April


Ingredients:
Pastry Dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 1/2 teaspoons (1 packet or 1/4 oz) active dry yeast
Pinch salt
1 cup sour cream
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
Filling:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Chopped pecans

1-2 egg yolks, for the egg wash

Directions:
For the dough:

1. Place the sifted flour into a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, add the yeast and salt, and mix it in. Add the sour cream and butter, mixing until it is evenly moistened and it looks like coarse meal. Switch to a dough hook and mix on medium-low speed for 5-10 minutes, or until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 3-5 hours, or overnight.

For the Filling:

1. Make the filling: Mix the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and butter in a medium bowl with your hands, until it looks like clumpy, damp sand. Set it aside

Make the Nazook:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut the refrigerated dough into quarters. Form them into balls. On a lightly flour surface, roll out the dough into a large rectangle or oval. It should be thin but not quite transparent. 
2. Place a quarter of the filling evenly over the rolled out door, leaving a 1-inch border. Carefully roll the dough across, the long way. Gently pat down the loaf with your palm and apply the egg wash using a pastry brush. Cut the log into 10 evenly sized pieces and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Enjoy!