Gata
Armenian gata is a sweet pastry baked for many celebrations, especially New Year and Trndez. Sometimes a coin is baked inside for luck. There are many versions, and this is one of the most common: soft yeast dough rolled up with khoriz filling — a crumbly mixture of flour, sugar and melted butter that turns into a sweet, buttery layer in the oven. The logs are cut diagonally before baking, so each piece browns on its cut sides too.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Rising 60 min
- Khoriz filling 5 min
- Shaping 25 min
- Baking 30 min
- Cooling 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead a soft yeast dough
Mix the flour with the yeast, sugar and salt. Add the lukewarm milk, egg and the cooled melted butter and knead 8–10 minutes, until the dough is smooth, soft and leaves your hand clean.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 7 g dried yeast · 250 ml milk, lukewarm · 100 g butter, melted · 1 pcs egg · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt
Leave to rise
Cover the bowl and leave somewhere warm for an hour, until doubled.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 7 g dried yeast · 250 ml milk, lukewarm · 100 g butter, melted · 1 pcs egg · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt
Make the khoriz
In a bowl rub the flour with the sugar, vanilla sugar and melted butter between your fingers until you have a moist, crumbly mixture like wet sand. If it is too runny, leave it a few minutes — the butter will firm up.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 170 g butter, melted · 200 g sugar · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
Like wet sand — it holds its shape when squeezed.Heat the oven and divide the dough
Heat the oven to 180°C and line two trays with paper. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, and the khoriz into 4 too.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 7 g dried yeast · 250 ml milk, lukewarm · 100 g butter, melted · 1 pcs egg · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt
Roll out, fill and roll up
Roll each piece of dough into a sheet about 30×25 cm. Scatter a portion of khoriz evenly over it, leaving a 2 cm border, and roll it up tightly from the long side. Pinch the ends so the filling does not spill in the oven.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 170 g butter, melted · 200 g sugar · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
Tightly from the long side — ends pinched.Flatten, glaze and score
Set the logs seam side down on the trays and flatten them lightly with your palm. Brush with beaten yolk and draw a pattern of lines on top with a fork. Cut each log diagonally into 8 pieces and ease them about 1 cm apart so the cut sides brown.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg yolk
Diagonally before baking — the cut sides brown too.Bake until golden
Bake 25–30 minutes, until deep golden. If you bake both trays at once, swap them halfway — the lower one browns faster underneath. Baked one after another, they take twice as long.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 7 g dried yeast · 250 ml milk, lukewarm · 100 g butter, melted · 1 pcs egg · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt
Cool and separate
Cool the gata on the tray for 15 minutes, then separate with a knife any pieces that have joined in the oven. Warm filling is fragile — once cooled it sets and the pieces hold together.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 7 g dried yeast · 250 ml milk, lukewarm · 100 g butter, melted · 1 pcs egg · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt
Before you start
Khoriz with nuts
In some regions of Armenia chopped walnuts or a pinch of cinnamon go into the khoriz. 50 g of nuts is enough for the whole batch of filling.
The round version
Gata is also baked as a large, round, flat cake with the filling inside, richly decorated on top. It is into this kind that a coin is sometimes baked.
Storage
Gata keeps 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature and freezes well. Warm thawed pieces a few minutes in a 150°C oven.
