It’s another month of Daring Baker deliciousness. This month, we had a choice between Armenian Nazook or Nutmeg Cake (or both!). Since I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have, I opted for cookies only (they’re easier to give away at work). So here we have it: NAZOOK!
Blurry 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 had a lot of fun with this recipe, mostly because of the dough. I have historical issues with dough, mostly because I’m impatient and a bit of a lazy baker. But this dough was nice and simple: mix ingredients, knead in the mixer, toss in the fridge. Somehow I wasn’t even required to let the yeast set up in warm water to let the yeast start to bubble; it was really pretty perfect for my ADD-style baking.
The filling was pretty interesting to. In fact, I was a little skeptical – it contains equal parts flour and sugar, 1 1/2 cup each. I thought it was sort of weird that there’d be so much flour in a filling; wouldn’t it taste bland? But I was wrong! In fact, I definitely munched on some of the filling while I was spreading it over the dough. The flour significantly tones down the sweetness of the feeling and makes it easily munch-able and makes the cookies dangerously delicious. Plus they’re small and almost bite-sized, which means they lend themselves even further to snacking. BUM BUM BUUUUUM.
Typically I’m a soft-cookie type of girl, but these nazook are ones I’m wiling to make exceptions for. They’re super crumbly (so make sure you have a napkin!), but the dough is rich an the filling sweet; I heard it compared to shortbread and I think I agree. Except not-crappy shortbread. Delicious shortbread.
Pile'o'Nazook
This is clearly going to become a quick favorite. Mine came out a bit lumpy instead of with clean, straight cuts (anybody know why?) but even so they were awesome. I highly recommend giving it a try!
Armenian Nazook
Find it Here!
Mary Gezo
Formerly of both n00bcakes and !Blog, the two magically become one on Spatialdrift; expect some lazy baking and serious nerditude. Also, I love semicolons.
This does look tasty. I actually like that it looks lumpy-it surely makes me want to eat a slice because the filling is so thick-yum!
I have never eaten nor seen anything like this. The Daring Bakers do come up with things out of the ordinary as well as winning recipes. Thanks for sharing the link and have a great day!
I’ve never even heard of these before but they sound so so good. I laughed at the “not-crappy shortbread”
@Tina – I’m glad you like the lumpy look; they sure tasted just as good! And you should join the Daring Bakers! I’ve learned a lot from them and made a lot of really interesting recipes. It’s winning all around!
@Stephanie – Yeah…I am *not* a big fan of shortbread. >.> I keep hearing it’s because I haven’t made a good recipe…but I dunno. 😀
Yay, nazook! Aren’t they awesome? Good shortbread tastes really buttery and not too sweet, which is how these tasted to me. They don’t look lumpy to me! Did you use a big, sharp knife? I wish I had a crinkle cutter because the challenge ones looked neat!