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. The nazook seemed more relevant to my interests, so that’s what I went with, with a few changes to make it cinnamon-y.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 2½ teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup butter, room temperature

Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon extract (if you don’t have cinnamon extract, and don’t want to buy it, use 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, either alone or with a half teaspoon of ground cinnamon)

Topping:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla yogurt
• cinnamon for sprinkling

To make the dough, stir the flour and yeast together in a large bowl. Add the sour cream and butter and stir together until it forms a rough dough. If using a stand mixer, switch from the paddle attachment to the dough hook and knead until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. If doing it by hand, just knead the dough, in the bowl, for about 10 minutes, until no longer sticky. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours, up to overnight.

When the dough has chilled, make the filling by combining all the ingredients in a medium bowl and mixing together with your hands until it looks like damp, lightly clumpy sand. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the yogurt and egg yolk and set aside.

Cut the refrigerated dough into quarters and set 3 aside. Form the first quarter into a ball and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Roll into a large oval or rectangle, about as thin as you can get it before it starts becoming see-through.

Spread 1/4 of the filling over the dough, going all the way to the sides but leaving a clear space along one long edge. Brush that long edge with the egg yolk mixture.

Roll up the dough into a tight log, rolling towards the egg washed side and using the egg wash to seal the seam. Gently press down on the top of your roll to lightly flatten it, so a cross section would be more of an oval than a circle.

Brush the top of the dough with the egg yolk mixture, then sprinkle with cinnamon and cut into 10 pieces. If you have a crinkle cutter, use that, if not a sharp knife works fine.

I didn't decide until later to add cinnamon, so I just added it on the pan.

Transfer the 10 pieces to an ungreased baking sheet and repeat with the remaining 3 pieces of dough. Depending on how fast your work, you may not actually need to preheat the oven until you’re on the second or third batch.

My cinnamon hand is apparently a bit unsteady...

Bake until golden brown, about half an hour. Let cool and enjoy.

These were lovely and flaky and reminded me of rugelach.

Not too shabby, for something I’d never heard of!

Cinnamon Nazook

From The Daring Kitchen.

Dough:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 2½ teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup butter, room temperature

Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon extract

Topping:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla yogurt
• cinnamon for sprinkling

To make the dough, stir the flour and yeast together in a large bowl. Add the sour cream and butter and stir together until it forms a rough dough. If using a stand mixer, switch from the paddle attachment to the dough hook and knead until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. If doing it by hand, just knead the dough, in the bowl, for about 10 minutes, until no longer sticky. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours, up to overnight.

When the dough is read, make the filling by combining all the ingredients in a medium bowl and mixing together with your hands until it looks like damp, lightly clumpy sand. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the yogurt and egg yolk and set aside.

Cut the refrigerated dough into quarters and set 3 aside. Form the first quarter into a ball and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Roll into a large oval or rectangle, as thin as possible without becoming see-through.

Spread 1/4 of the filling over the dough, going all the way to the sides but leaving a clear space along one long edge. Brush the free long edge with the egg yolk mixture.

Roll up the dough into a tight log, rolling towards the egg washed side and using the egg wash to seal the seam. Gently press down on the top of your roll to lightly flatten.

Brush the top of the dough with the egg yolk mixture, then sprinkle with cinnamon and cut into 10 pieces with a crinkle cutter or sharp knife. Transfer the pieces to an ungreased baking sheet and repeat with the remaining 3 portions of dough.

When all the dough is used up, bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.