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
NUTMEG CAKE
I wasn't originally sure if I'd have time, though, so started with the one that appealed most to me. Nutmeg cake. Ever since discovering that it was this little nut that MADE carrot cake, I've been looking for an excuse to use it again. Well, everything seemed to be going perfectly, but when I went to get it out of the oven at 30 minutes it seemed brown and, had it been any other cake, done, but wobbly. "No big deal..." I thought. "I'll give it an extra five minutes. 30 to 40 minutes, after all".
So five minutes passed, and no, it was still perfectly, deceptively done on the outside, but completely liquid under the thin crust. So I gave it another five. And another. Then another. Then I put some foil over the top, lowered the temperature by twenty degrees centigrade, and gave it another fifteen minutes. At this point I gave up, took it out of the oven, and surveyed my sticky toffee nutmeg pudding.
I wish I actually knew how to replicate it, because it tastes amazing and, weirdly, a gooey, chewy texture works incredibly well with it!
However, I would have liked to be able to make the cake version too... my main suspect was our oven, which did exactly the same thing to me on the previous Friday when I was making a goat's cheese and onion tart for my family. After it had been in the oven for an hour, double the prescribed time, it was still completely liquid still save for a thin skin. Into the microwave it went, and then it was fine. My brother then made some brownies over the weekend and had trouble with them not cooking through too. So I bought an oven thermometer and, contrary to my belief it might be running far too hot, it was actually running about 10C-20C cool.
So now I'm still a bit stumped, to be honest. I cooked it at 155C in our fan oven, following the usual tactic of knocking 20C off a non-fan temperature. I suppose it might have been trying to cook at 135C, but then surely it just wouldn't be done on the outside either...? I now keep a closer eye when baking, and tend to put the oven 10C above on the dial.
But I'll definitely be trying this recipe again!
But I'll definitely be trying this recipe again!
p.s. Excuse the slightly blurry photos, I didn't take much care over them seeing as making a pile of goo look good is beyond my photographic skill. Honestly, the taste makes you forget about its beauty-impairment...
Armenian Nutmeg Cake Recipe
The recipe and directions below are taken directly from the Daring Bakers Challenge sheet provided by Jason at Daily Candor, our host for the month.
240 ml milk (whole was recommended but I used semi-skimmed)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (5 gm) baking soda
280 gm/10 oz plain flour
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) baking powder
400 gm/14 oz brown sugar, firmly packed (I used dark brown soft)
170 gm/6 oz butter, preferably unsalted, cubed
55 gm/2 oz walnut pieces, may need a little more
1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons (5 to 7 ½ ml) (5 to 8 gm) ground nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
1 egg
2. Mix the baking soda (not baking powder; that's for the next step) into the milk. Set it aside.
3. Sift together the flour and the baking powder into a large bowl. One sift is fine
4. Add the brown sugar. Go ahead and mix the flour and brown sugar together. Or not.
5. Toss in the cubed butter.
6. Mash the butter with a fork into the dry ingredients (you can also use your fingers if you want). You'll want to achieve a more-or-less uniform, tan-colored crumbly mixture.
7. Take HALF of this resulting crumbly mixture into your springform (9”/23cm) pan. Press a crust out of it using your fingers and knuckles. It will be easy.
8. Crack an egg into a mixer or bowl.
9. Toss the nutmeg in with the egg.
10. Start mixing slowly with a whisk attachment and then increase to medium speed, or mix with a hand
whisk if you're doing it manually. Once it's mixed well and frothy (about 1 minute using a standing mixer, or
about 2-3 minutes of vigorous beating with a whisk), pour in the milk and baking soda mixture. Continue to mix until uniform.
11. Pour in the rest of the crumbly mixture. Mix that well, with either a paddle attachment, or a spatula. Or continue to use the whisk; it won't make much of a difference, since the resulting batter is very liquidy.
12. Pour the batter over the base in the springform pan.
13. Gently sprinkle the walnut pieces over the batter.
14. Bake in a preheated moderate oven for about 30-40 minutes. You'll know it's done when the top is a
golden brown, and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
15. Allow to cool in the pan, and then release. Enjoy!
NAZOOK
NAZOOK
So, about a week later, I decided that seeing as the nutmeg cake hadn't been the hugest success, I might as well try the Nazook. I even managed to convert my Mum, who was eyeing it suspiciously since it "had an odd name and I don't know if I'll like it" *facepalm*
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Well, she did, I did, my boyfriend did, my Grandparents did. Nazook is going to be VERY high on the regular baking list now!
I made two flavours, though I didn't try the original one because I'd halved the recipe and had 2 ideas for my own flavourings. The first was apple, cinnamon and currant, which did explode slightly when baked, though I'm not sure if it might be because this filling was much runnier than my other one due to the addition of the stewed apple.
However, they tasted lovely. These were my boyfriend's favourites.
The other flavour... well, okay, I'll admit I was naughty. Our host said that chocolate wasn't a traditional filling. But we like chocolate in our house… I know, I know, I'm sorry, but I had some good quality baking chocolate just sitting there and it sort of happened. In went a few squares of melted chocolate, a handful of finely chopped walnuts, and now I wished I'd doubled the recipe rather than halved it and made it all with this filling... though my waistline was complaining enough with all the easter eggs anyway! This filling was much thicker, I had to pop it in the microwave for a while to make it spreadable, but while it did expand out slightly it seemed to do so in a far more regular way, and they held together better..JPG)
Well, she did, I did, my boyfriend did, my Grandparents did. Nazook is going to be VERY high on the regular baking list now!
However, they tasted lovely. These were my boyfriend's favourites.
So overall, nazook was a resounding success, easy to make, and it's so nice to have little things for once instead of big slices of cake. Yum and yum.
Pastry dough - makes 20 nazook (half original recipe)
210g plain flour, sifted
Nazook recipe
The methodology was the one provided by our host, Jason at Daily Candor, though I've made the odd note. The only part that is mine are my filling variations. I've also halved the ingredients because I found 20 nazook were a nicer number if you were making them for the family, not to take them anywhere special.
210g plain flour, sifted
3.5 g (1/2 packet) active dry yeast (I ended up using instant so used slightly less)
112.5 g (120 ml) sour cream
112.5 g (120 ml) sour cream
112.5g softened butter (room temperature)
Basic Filling - make this and add other ingredients afterwards. Fills 20 nazook.
105g plain flour, sifted
170g sugar
85g softened butter (room temperature)
Wash
1-2 egg yolks for the wash (I used an egg white because we had one left in the fridge from something else)
Make the Pastry Dough
1. Place the sifted flour into a large bowl.
2. Add the dry yeast, and mix it in.
3. Add the sour cream, and the softened butter.
4. Use your hands, or a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, to work it into a dough.
5. 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.
6. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 3-5 hours, or overnight if you like.
Make the Basic Filling
1. Mix the flour, sugar, and the softened butter in a medium bowl.
1. Make up the filling as directed, minus the vanilla.
2. Stew one apple per 1/2 of the filling recipe, cubed, with some water and cinnamon, in the microwave on defrost (approx 300W). I was using a pink lady, not a stewing apple, and it took upwards of 10 minutes.
3. Mix the apple into the filling mixture. I found it to be very gloopy; I'm not sure if it might be worth adding some more flour at this point.
4. Spread the mixture onto the rolled pastry, all the way to the short edges but leaving about an inch of gap before the long edges, and sprinkle with currants, raisins or sultanas.
1. Make up the filling as directed, minus the vanilla.
2. Mix in approx 30g-40g of melted chocolate and a handful of finely chopped walnuts. You will have to mix it very thoroughly.
3. I then popped it back in the microwave for around 30 seconds on high to make it easier to spread. Spread the Spread the mixture onto the rolled pastry, all the way to the short edges but leaving about an inch of gap before the long edges,
Make the nazook
1. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/175°C/155°C Fan/gas mark 4.
2. Cut the refrigerated dough in half.
3. Form one of the halves into a ball. Dust your working surface with a little flour.
4. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle or oval. The dough should be thin, but not transparent.
5. Spread one of the filling mixtures 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 (1 inch/2.5 cm) along the long edges.
Basic Filling - make this and add other ingredients afterwards. Fills 20 nazook.
105g plain flour, sifted
170g sugar
85g softened butter (room temperature)
Wash
1-2 egg yolks for the wash (I used an egg white because we had one left in the fridge from something else)
Make the Pastry Dough
1. Place the sifted flour into a large bowl.
2. Add the dry yeast, and mix it in.
3. Add the sour cream, and the softened butter.
4. Use your hands, or a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, to work it into a dough.
5. 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.
6. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 3-5 hours, or overnight if you like.
Make the Basic Filling
1. Mix the flour, sugar, and the softened butter in a medium bowl.
2. Mix the filling until it looks like clumpy, damp sand. It should not take long. Set aside.
Make the Apple Filling
2. Stew one apple per 1/2 of the filling recipe, cubed, with some water and cinnamon, in the microwave on defrost (approx 300W). I was using a pink lady, not a stewing apple, and it took upwards of 10 minutes.
3. Mix the apple into the filling mixture. I found it to be very gloopy; I'm not sure if it might be worth adding some more flour at this point.
4. Spread the mixture onto the rolled pastry, all the way to the short edges but leaving about an inch of gap before the long edges, and sprinkle with currants, raisins or sultanas.
Make the Chocolate and Walnut Filling
2. Mix in approx 30g-40g of melted chocolate and a handful of finely chopped walnuts. You will have to mix it very thoroughly.
3. I then popped it back in the microwave for around 30 seconds on high to make it easier to spread. Spread the Spread the mixture onto the rolled pastry, all the way to the short edges but leaving about an inch of gap before the long edges,
Make the nazook
1. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/175°C/155°C Fan/gas mark 4.
2. Cut the refrigerated dough in half.
3. Form one of the halves into a ball. Dust your working surface with a little flour.
4. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle or oval. The dough should be thin, but not transparent.
6. 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.
8. Apply your egg yolk wash with a pastry brush.
9. Use your crinkle cutter (or knife) to cut the loaf into 10 equally-sized pieces. Put onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
10. Place in a preheated moderate oven for about 30 minutes, until the tops are a rich, golden brown.
11. Allow to cool and enjoy!
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