I found this recipe on-line at "The Art of Armenian and Middle Eastern Cooking"
website. This site has hundreds (if not thousands of fantastic recipes! This pastry was a favorite of my Dad's. I've always liked this with a little bit of almond paste added.
" NAZOOK " RECIPE: STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
Nazouk is a crisp, but soft, and buttery, sweet, but not too sweet,
pastry that's a traditional favorite among Armenians (maybe not so much
among dieters...see the nutritional information at the end). It goes
well with coffee or tea, or even hot chocolate. And, if you want to have
a go at making it, you'll get nods of approval from little old Armenian
ladies everywhere.
Since there are virtually no good recipes
for nazook online, I turned to the master pastry baker in my family, my
Aunt Aida, who's been baking nazook for decades. Her nazook is
absolutely perfect, much better than the best stuff you can buy in
Glendale grocery stores. She graciously offered to show me how to make
nazook, and sent me home with 40 pieces of this pastry (yes, that sound
you hear is the death knell of my weight loss efforts...).
A
little on this pastry's background: Aida tells me that other Armenians
eat nazook, too, but they might call it gata (gata is what
Persian-Armenians reserve for a specific type of round cake). Armenians
prepare it usually around the time of Easter, and it is eaten for 40
days through Ascension. I'm not sure it has any religious significance
except for that this time usually involves friends visiting each other,
and nazook is a nice pastry to serve along with coffee or tea.
What You'll Need
Equipment:
2 bowls
2 cookie sheets
pastry brush
rolling pin, or empty wine bottle
crinkle cutter, or a sharp knife
Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups (563 g) all-purpose flour, sifted
8 oz (227 g) sour cream
3 1/2 sticks (397 g) softened butter (room temperature)
1 packet (2 1/2 tsp, or 7 g) active dry yeast
1 1/2 cup (338 g) sugar
2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla extract
1-2 egg yolks (for the wash; alternatively, some yogurt, egg whites, or a whole egg)
Directions
Make the Pastry Dough
Sift 3 cups (375 g) of the flour into a large bowl.
Add the dry yeast, and mix it in.
Add the sour cream, and 2 sticks (227 g) of the softened butter.
Use your hands, or a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, to work it into a dough.
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.
Cover the dough and refrigerate for 3-5 hours.
Make the filling
Mix together the remaining (1 1/2 cups, 188 g) flour, the sugar, and the remaining (1 1/2 stick, 170 g) of softened butter.
Add the vanilla extract.
Mix the filling until it looks like clumpy, damp sand. It should not take long.
Make the nazook
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.
Spread 1/4 of the filling mixture across the rolled-out dough in an even layer.
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.
Pat down the loaf with your palm and fingers so that it flattens out a bit (just a bit).
Apply your egg yolk wash with a pastry brush.
Use your crinkle cutter (or knife) to cut the loaf into 10 equally-sized pieces. Put onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Place in an oven preheated to 350F (175C) for about 30 minutes, until the tops are a rich, golden brown.
Allow to cool and enjoy!
Variations
The pastry dough can be made with egg yolks instead of the sour cream,
if you want a richer-hued pastry dough. Apparently this is the way my
grandmother made it. You'd need to add enough yolks to achieve the same
dough consistency as you would with the sour cream.
There are
far more variations when it comes to the filling. Here are some common
variations and additions (from traditional to less traditional):
mahleb - a powder made from the pits of a type of cherry; it has an almond/cherry flavor
nutmeg
cinnamon
ground walnuts
ground hazelnuts
ground almonds
