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This gata tastes flaky, soft, nutty on the inside and has a thin, crispy crust. It is incredibly tender, buttery and so delicious. No wonder it is a very popular pastry in Armenia. It is also a sweet eye-catcher on the coffee table. You can find a detailed gata recipe with walnuts and shortcrust pastry with the exact quantities and step-by-step instructions below.
What is gata?
Gata is a sweet pastry from Armenian cuisine. It is a very old recipe. The pastry is also common in Turkey and Azerbaijan. Here it is called kyata. In Georgia, the pastry is called kada.
Many grocery stores in Armenia sell gata. There are even stores that only sell this pastry. Armenians also like to make gata at home. It is a must at every celebration.
There are countless variations of gata, which differ greatly depending on the region and country. The differences lie in the dough, the filling and the shape of the pastry.
Gata can be made from yeast dough, shortcrust pastry, puff pastry or Danish pastry dough. The Karabakh kyata, for example, is made with a yeast dough.
The classic filling for the Armenian pastry is a crumble mixture. Nuts are often added to it. Dried fruits, candied lemon peel and candied orange peel or rum are also sometimes used.
Gata can take the form of a large, flat, round cake, which is cut into “cake pieces” after baking. It can also look like a smaller sweet flatbread with a filling. Gata also comes in the form of cookie rolls, rhombuses and triangles.
By the way, have you tried the most popular Armenian layer cakes?
Ideas for khoreez
The filling for Armenian gata is called khoreez. These are fine crumbles made from butter, sugar and flour. If you want to make the gata with the classic filling, leave out the walnuts in the recipe below.
The gata is still delicious with hazelnuts. A mixture of walnuts and hazelnuts is also perfect for the filling.
I have also refined the khoreez with vanilla. However, you can experiment with other spices. Try it with cinnamon, for example. Or spice up the khoreez with a little cognac.
You can also add various dried fruits to the classic gata filling instead of nuts. Suitable ingredients include raisins, chopped soft apricots and dates.
Pastry with a wavy edge
In Armenia, the dough roll is traditionally cut into dough pieces with a crinkle cutter. This gives the cookies a nice curved edge.
If you don’t have a crinkle cutter at home, you can also cut the gata with an ordinary sharp knife. Although the cookies will then look slightly different from the typical Armenian pastry, this will not affect the taste.
This gata is
- crispy on the outside,
- soft on the inside,
- nutty,
- buttery,
- fluffy,
- flaky,
- tender,
- heavenly delicious,
- aromatic,
- golden brown,
- with walnuts,
- easy to make with common ingredients,
- an eye-catcher on the coffee table, similar to the oreshki or the peach cookies,
- ideal for a party or tea time during the week,
- a sweet classic of Armenian cuisine.
How to make Armenian gata: tips and tricks
- Use very cold butter for the dough. I put it in the freezer beforehand and then grated it with a coarse kitchen grater while I kept rolling it in the flour mixture.
- The other ingredients for the dough, especially sour cream and egg, must also be cold.
- Do not knead the dough for a long time, but simply mix all the ingredients into a roughly homogeneous ball of dough. Work as quickly as possible so that the butter does not melt from the heat of your hands.
- You can adjust the amount of sugar for the filling to taste. Bear in mind that the dough does not contain any sugar.
- You can replace walnuts with hazelnuts. The filling is also delicious with a mixture of different nuts.
- Alternatively, you can leave out the nuts and just fill the gata with the crumbles in the traditional way.
- Traditionally, the dough roll is cut into dough pieces using a crinkle cutter. However, you can also do it with a normal sharp knife.
Video recipe for gata with nuts
You can find a short video for the Armenian gata with nuts on my Youtube channel. There you can see exactly how to make it at home. If you don’t want to miss any more videos from me, please subscribe to my channel.
Have you made Armenian gata using this recipe? I look forward to your result, your star rating and your comment below on how it turned out and how it tasted.
Try these other delicious pastry recipes with walnuts:
- Nut rogaliki – walnut rugelach with addictive potential
- Tatar cookies “Barmak” – with walnut filling
- Honey walnut gingerbread – Christmas recipe
Gata with nuts
Ingredients
for the dough
- 200 g butter very cold
- 200 g sour cream cold
- 1 egg cold
- 400 g flour
- 6 g baking powder
- 1 pinch of ground vanilla bean
- 1/3 tsp salt
- flour for the work surface
for the filling
- 100 g walnuts roasted
- 100 g butter room warm
- 200 g sugar
- 200 g flour
- 1 pinch of ground vanilla bean
for coating
- 1 egg white
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions
Preparation of the dough
- Mix flour, baking powder, vanilla and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Add cold butter and chop finely.
- Add sour cream and egg and mix briefly and quickly to form a roughly homogeneous shortcrust dough ball.
- Divide the dough into two equal portions, flatten each piece of dough slightly and chill in an airtight container for approx. 30 minutes.
Preparation of the filling
- Finely chop roasted walnuts.
- Mix flour, sugar and vanilla.
- Add chopped butter and work briefly and quickly into fine, sandy crumbles.
- Add the chopped walnuts to the crumble and mix.
Preparation of the gata
- Mix egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of milk.
- First take a piece of dough out of the fridge and roll it out on a floured work surface to a rectangle approx. 3 mm thick.
- Brush the dough lightly with egg white.
- Spread half of the nut crumble filling evenly over the dough and press it down a little.
- Roll up the dough from the longer side, closing the two ends of the roll, and flatten the roll slightly.
- Cut the roll into diamonds using a sharp knife or a crinkle cutter.
- Spread the dough pieces slightly apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper and brush them with the egg yolk mixture, using a fork to draw a pattern of your choice.
- Bake the gata in a preheated oven at 356 °F (180 °C) for approx. 20 minutes until golden brown.
- Make gata from the second piece of dough and the remaining filling in the same way and bake it.
Notes
- Use very cold butter for the dough. I put it in the freezer beforehand and then grated it with a coarse kitchen grater while I kept rolling it in the flour mixture.
- The other ingredients for the dough, especially sour cream and egg, must also be cold.
- Do not knead the dough for a long time, but simply mix all the ingredients into a roughly homogeneous ball of dough. Work as quickly as possible so that the butter does not melt from the heat of your hands.
- You can adjust the amount of sugar for the filling to taste. Bear in mind that the dough does not contain any sugar.
- You can replace walnuts with hazelnuts. The filling is also delicious with a mixture of different nuts.
- Alternatively, you can leave out the nuts and just fill the gata with the crumbles in the traditional way.
- Traditionally, the dough roll is cut into dough pieces using a crinkle cutter.
- Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the gata at the top of the article.
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