If you’ve been on the lookout for a pastry that seamlessly blends flaky layers with a sweet and nutty filling, you’re in for a treat. Nazook, a traditional Armenian pastry, has a way of capturing hearts with its irresistible taste and charming simplicity. When looking for recipes to make with the alphabet N, this was the first recipe my husband looked at. I fell in love with the name of the pastry even without looking at the ingredients and decided that this was what I was going to make. Last week, when I was planning for the bakes for this week, I read the recipe. I was not looking forward to making another sweet bake, but my heart was set on making this particular one. I was glad that Nazouk was not the overly sweet kind. It was love at first sight with the flaky pastry and the little changes that I made to the filling took it to a whole different level. Nazouk is quite buttery and eating just one leaves you filled up, but the taste buds keep wanting more. My husband kept coming back to the Nazook, in spite of complaining that he was too full to eat anymore. The dough is made with all butter and sour cream and hence has to be refrigerated before we roll and shape it. Also, the yeast develops slowly in the refrigerator and hence if allowed to sit in the refrigerator overnight, the flavors develop better. The filling is originally made with flour, sugar, and butter. I added a little almond meal (you could tell that I love my almond meal) in the filling and it was just perfect. The almond meal gave a very nutty flavor to the Nazook and I would not have done it any other way. Preparation time - 20 minutes plus chilling timeBaking time - about 30 minutesDifficulty level - IntermediateRecipe adapted from - Fae’s Twist and Tango
Ingredients to make Nazook - Makes 16
For the dough -
All-purpose flour - 1 ½ cups Instant yeast - 1 ¼ tsp Sour cream - ½ cup Unsalted butter - 8 tablespoon (room temperature) Sugar - 1 tbsp Salt - ¼ tsp Heavy cream and milk - 1 tablespoon + 1 tablespoon (for brushing the pastries)
For the Nazouk filling -
All-purpose flour - ½ cup Almond meal - ¼ cup Sugar - ¾ cup Butter - 6 tablespoon (room temperature) Vanilla - ½ teaspoon (optional)
Procedure to make Nazook -
To make the dough -
I used my food processor to make the dough. To the bowl of the food processor, or in a large bowl, add the flour, instant yeast, sugar, and salt and give it a mix.
Add the butter and the sour cream and process until a smooth dough forms. The dough will be quite soft, but will not be sticky. If the dough appears too soft, then add a little more flour to combine. Do not add too much flour as it will make the pastry hard.
Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 3 to 5 hours or overnight if possible.
Making the Filling -
In a bowl, add the flour, sugar, and almond meal and mix well to combine.
Chop the butter into small pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Add the vanilla as well if using and mix the whole mixture together until it forms a wet sand-like consistency.
Shaping and baking the Nazook -
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and keep it ready.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes. Divide the dough into two equal halves. This is a fat dough and hence will be quite hard when taken out of the refrigerator. It will soften very quickly though, so we have to work quite fast.
Dust the work surface with flour and roll one of the dough balls into a thin rectangle. Make sure that the dough is rolled pretty thin, without tearing the dough.
Sprinkle half of the filling evenly over the rectangle, leaving a one-inch border on all sides.
Now start rolling the dough across tightly.
Flatten the rolled dough with your palms and then evenly divide them into 8 pieces. You could use a crinkled cutter and cut them on an angle or just use a sharp knife and cut them. I used a sharp knife and cut them slightly at an angle.
Place the shaped pastries on the prepared baking tray.
Brush the top of the pastries with the cream and milk mixture and bake the Nazouk for about 30 minutes.
The pastry will be golden brown on top and will be firm to the touch.
Remove the Nazook from the oven and cool them completely on racks.
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