Daring Bakers: Armenian Nazook and Nutmeg Cake

DID THE FIRST ARMENIANS IN PENANG MAKE NAZOOK AND NUTMEG CAKE? 

Lebuh Armenian or Armenian Street is in George Town, a Unesco historic city situated on Malaysia's west coast island of Penang. Armenians arrived in then Malaya in the late 18th to early 19th centuries and set up as traders, doctors and other businesses.

(Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of my own, but am allowed to use the photo by Gryffinder at Wikimedia Commons with credit to the author. Thank you, Gryffinder.)

There's not a lot online about the Armenians in Penang, but there is at least one book written on the subject. And this blogger quotes from that book at his site. In fact, there is a lot more information about the Armenian nazook and nutmeg cake online.

Ah yes, the pastries... the wonderful, wonderful pastries. Now that the brief history lesson is over, I'll get on with the subject of this post.

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.

Jason's instructions, along with links to videos on making the two sweets, were most helpful and I enjoyed making them.

Well, thanks to Jason's challenge, I found out about Armenian cakes as well as a little about Malaysian history! For more pictures of Armenian Street, this site has some really beautiful ones (all right, that was the last tourism plug for Penang. Promise.)

Armenian nutmeg cake (top) and nazook 

As the pictures show, my perspective was all wrong. I got it backwards with both items. Halving the amount of ingredients called for in Jason's recipe, I made two small nutmeg cakes, each one 10cm across (which made the slices doll-sized); and only a dozen nazook instead of about 20 (they were about palm-sized)!

The other Daring Bakers got the perspective correct. For a look at the results of the talented lot, do visit The Daring Kitchen.

Lovely layers

I didn't change the filling in the nazook but for the cake, I substituted about a quarter of the soft brown sugar for gula merah (red sugar). This sugar also comes from a palm tree, but I am still trying to find out if it is from the coconut palm or Palmyra or even some other kind of palm. Anyway, it is dark reddish brown and comes in loose form alhough I'm sure it is also made into a block like brown palm sugar (gula Melaka).

I made nazook a second time and went with a coconut flavour. I included some coconut cream in the pastry and loving the texture and taste of red palm sugar, I used it in the filling along with grated fresh coconut. This filling was moister, unlike the original sandy-textured vanilla filling. The caramelised sugar made the pastries chewy and the fresh coconut, of course, was irresistible.

I don't know if I can call them nazook any more, but they were certainly inspired by those lovely Armenian pastries.

And this time, I made them daintier. 

The red palm sugar creates a chewy centre

Coconut and Red Palm Sugar Pastries

Inspired by Armenian Nazook. Makes 20 pastries

Pastry dough

210g all-purpose (plain) flour, sifted

4g active dry yeast

80g sour cream
30g coconut cream

80g softened butter, at room temperature

Filling

50g all-purpose (plain) flour, sifted

100g grated fresh coconut

100g red palm sugar

70g softened butter (room temperature)

1 tsp coconut extract, optional  

Wash

1 egg yolk 

Make the Pastry Dough

Mix the sifted flour and yeast in a large bowl. Add the sour cream and mix to form a shaggy dough. Set aside for 10 minutes to activate the yeast. Transfer the dough to a work surface and pat out into a rough circle; spread the butter in the centre. Work it into the flour mixture with your hands to form a dough. Continue to knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough no longer sticks to the surface or your hands. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Make the filling

Combine all the ingredients and mix until the filling comes together into a rough paste. Set aside.

Make the nazook

Preheat the oven to moderate 175°C. Divide the refrigerated dough into two equal portions. Form them into balls.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out or pat the dough into a rectangle The dough should be thin, but not transparent. Spread ½ of the filling mixture across the rolled-out dough in an even layer. Try to spread the filling as close as possible to the edges on the short sides, but keep some of pastry dough uncovered 2.5cm along the long edges. 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 egg yolk wash with a pastry brush. Use a crinkle cutter to cut the loaf on an angle into 10 equal pieces. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet (or one lined with baking parchment). Place in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until the tops are a rich, golden brown.