Yummy Nutmeg Cake and Nazook--Armenian Baking

This was a fun and delicious baker's challenge from the Daring Kitchen . Jason, from dailycandor.com, used two recipes from his heritage this month--love that! 

Baked Nutmeg Cake

Slice Of Deliciousness...The Cookie-Type Crust Is Fantastic

Cashews Sprinkled On Cake Before Baking
The only difference between my recipe and his for the nutmeg cake is that I used some whole wheat flour and cashews for cake top instead of walnuts.  The cashews were salted and gave a saltiness to the cake that I liked a lot.  I did use his directions for a food processor--so easy!

Armenian Nutmeg Cake   Oven at 350 degrees                                                           1 cup milk--lowfat is ok                                                               1 teaspoon baking soda                                                                     2 cups whole wheat flour                                                              2 teaspoons baking powder                                                                        2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed                                                               3/4 cup butter, cubed                                                                     1/2 cup or little more, walnut pieces                                                      1 egg                                                                                         1 to 1-­1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg                                                                                      

Mix the baking soda (not baking powder) into the milk. Set aside.  Put flour, baking powder, and brown sugar into a food processor. Pulse until uniformly mixed. Toss in cubed butter. Pulse until uniformly mixed into tan-colored crumbs.  Pour HALF of crumbs into your 9 " springform pan. Press out a crust using your fingers and knuckles.   Crack egg into food processor with the rest of the crumbs still in it.  . Grate 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. Toss into food processor, too. Pulse until well-incorporated.   Pour in milk and baking soda mixture. Continue to mix until a slightly lumpy tan batter is formed.  Pour batter over crust in.  Gently sprinkle nuts over batter.  Bake 30-40 minutes. It's ready when top is golden brown, and when it passes the toothpick test (comes out clean).  Cool cake in pan, then enjoy!

Nazook Cut Open

Baked Nazook

Rolling Up Nazook

Apricot Filling Spread On Nazook Dough

Rolled Up And Cut Nazook On Silicon Mats

   Nazook

Pastry dough:   2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted        1 cup oatmeal      2 1⁄2 teaspoons yeast         1 cup sour cream                              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 unsalted butter (room temperature)                           2 teaspoons vanilla extract                                                                                                                                                                               Wash:  yogurt                                                                                                                                                                                                      Make Pastry Dough:  Place sifted flour into a large bowl. Add yeast, and mix in.  Add sour cream (used half sour cream and half yogurt), and butter.  Use your hands, or standing mixer with paddle attachment, to work it into dough.  If using a standing mixer, switch to dough hook. If making manually, continue to knead for about 10 minutes, or until dough no longer sticks to bowl or your hands. If it remains very sticky, add some flour, a little at a time.   Cover dough and refrigerate for 3-­5 hours, or overnight if you like.  

Make the filling:  Mix  flour, sugar, and the softened butter in a medium bowl.  Add vanilla extract. Mix the filling until it looks like clumpy, damp sand. It should not take long. Set aside. I used thawed and drained apricots with sugar and butter, so it became a spread.  Next time I'd use more sugar--it was a bit tart. 

Make the nazook:  Preheat oven to 350°F   Cut refrigerated dough into quarters.  Form one of the quarters into a ball. Dust your working surface with a little flour.  Roll  into a large rectangle or oval. The dough should be thin, but not transparent. (this is a marvelously easy dough to work with!)  Spread 1/4 of  filling mixture across rolled-­out dough in even layer. Try to spreads close as possible to edges on short sides, but keep some of the dough uncovered (1 inch) along long edges.   From one long side, start slowly rolling dough across. Be careful to make sure filling stays evenly distributed. Roll  until you have a long, thin loaf.   Pat down loaf with palm and fingers so that it flattens out a bit (just a bit).  Apply egg yolk wash with a pastry brush.  User crinkle cutter (or knife) to cut loaf into 10 equally- sized pieces.  Repeat with remaining pieces of dough.  Put onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Place in oven for about 30 minutes, until tops are a rich, golden brown. Allow to cool and enjoy!  (do NOT know how to fix my recipes from shifting all over the place--sorry!!  hopefully you can figure it out.  Also, go to Jason's site and watch the videos--really helpful.

Blog-checking lines: 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.