Gata is a traditional pastry found in Armenia, which comes in many varieties depending on the town you visit. When Sarin Chemilian first visited Armenia, she was introduced to gata. It quickly became a staple dish which she would make at home on special occasions.
When Sarin started her business, Sarin Tantig’s, a bakery supporting Armenian causes, gata became one of her signature dishes, alongside keghke. She shared her achki chapov (eyeballed) recipe with us, and was kind enough to measure out the ingredients so we could share them with you. Watch the video below, and check out our recipe here.
Sarin’s Gata Tips
The yeast is really critical to gata, since the dough will rise three times during the preparation process. So, Sarin tells us to keep an eye on our yeast. It should be evenly mixed with the water when it’s activating, and should begin to bubble before you combine it with the rest of the ingredients.
Sarin showed us two batches of this recipe, and noted her first yeast was significantly more active.
In this recipe you’ll need to melt butter and shortening, as well as boil milk. Sarin does this in the same saucepan to save her dishes later, only starting the milk once she’s added the butter and shortening to her eggs and sugar.
Satisfied with the bubbles forming in her yeast, Sarin combines it with the rest of her ingredients. With the yeast mixed in, Sarin tells us that the mixture should begin to feel a little thicker.
Rather than separately mixing her wet and dry ingredients, Sarin adds her mahaleb and salt and mixes them into the wet ingredients before adding her flour. She thinks this ensures everything is mixed as evenly as possible.
Sarin adds the flour, gets rid of her whisk, and starts mixing by hand. This is where the kneading starts. Using her hands right from the beginning keeps the dough warm.
“There’s no real trick to kneading,” she tells us. “The trick is you just can’t be afraid. Just wing it. What’s the worst that can happen?”
Sarin’s dough looks a little dry on the outside, but she pokes the inside and says it’s exactly right in there, so she’ll call that a win. She oils a large mixing bowl, and puts the dough inside.
“I cover it with seran wrap because I feel like a towel is too heavy and will stop it rising.” she tells us. And goes to store the dough by the fireplace.
Gata rises three times before cooking. After the first rise, Sarin breaks the dough into baseball-sized portions and lays them out on an oiled serving platter. “You don’t want them touching.” she says, “If they’re touching when they’ve risen that’s ok, but they need space.” She covers the platter with seran wrap again and puts them back by the fire.
The second rise takes about an hour and half. The sun sets in that time.
Sarin starts making her filling after an hour. She mixes her sugar and butter, and adds her spices, again making sure they’re fully incorporated into the mixture before adding any flour. And she adds the flour in stages to mix it completely.
Sarin again abandons any tools to mix with her hands. She tells us it will feel dry, but it should stick to itself. That’s when you know you’ve made a proper filling.
Once the filling is done, you should fill your gata immediately. You don’t want to let it dry out. Sarin fills her gata with a ⅓ cup measure of filling, usually using about ½ to ⅔ cups of filling in all.
With the filling in the gata, she brings the edges of the dough into the center to form the pastry, and flattens it with a rolling pin to ensure the filling is evenly distributed inside. “I’m not applying too much pressure,” she says, “but I want it to be flat.”
If the gata breaks open when transferring to the tray, simply pinch it shut again on the tray.
Sarin washes the gata with egg and covers them with seran wrap to rise one more time while the oven preheats, for about 30 minutes.
“You want to make sure there’s enough space between the gata on the trays because they will expand.”
She washes them a second time right before they go in the oven.
It’s very late when she takes them out of the oven, but the effort has been worth it. The gata are a beautiful golden brown.
“There you go! You’ve made gata.”
Dietary Notes
Nut free, peanut free, vegetarian
Ingredients
Dough
2 tablespoons (30 mL) yeast
10 eggs
¼ cup (60 mL) shortening
½ cup (120 mL) butter
1 ½ cups (360 mL) milk
2 teaspoons (10 mL) mahaleb
1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt
9 cups (2.2 L) flour
Olive oil
FIlling
2 cups (480 mL) butter, and more to brush the dough
2 ¼ cups (540 mL) sugar
2 teaspoons (10 mL) cloves
2 teaspoons (10 mL) mahaleb
1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt
7 cups (1.7 L) flour
Egg wash
4 eggs
Steps
Combine yeast with ½ cup (120 mL) luke-warm water and set aside while you make the dough, or for about 5-10 minutes. Periodically stir your yeast to make sure it’s evenly mixed into the water.
In a small saucepan melt ¼ cup (60 mL) shortening and ½ cup (120 mL) butter together.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk 10 eggs with 1 cup (240 mL) of sugar until evenly combined.
Let the butter and shortening cool somewhat, and then add the melted butter and shortening to the eggs and sugar.
In the same saucepan as you melted the butter, heat 1 ½ cups (360 mL) of milk at medium heat.
Add activated yeast to the eggs, and mix to combine.
Add the milk into the eggs mixture.
Add mahaleb and salt and stir to evenly incorporate.
Add flour and, using your hands, knead the mixture until it forms a dough. After 5-10 minutes, the dough will be soft, and hold together. If the dough does not hold together, add some water.
Oil a large mixing bowl at least twice the size of your dough, and place the dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel, and store in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size. 1.5 - 2 hours.
Once the dough has risen, oil a large serving platter. Tear the dough into approximately baseball-sized portions, and lay them out on the platter so they have space to rise. Cover the dough again, and store in a warm place to continue rising and again double in size. 1.5 - 2 hours.
Begin mixing the filling about a half hour before the second rise is complete.
Melt 2 cups (480 mL) butter and mix it with 2 ¼ cups (540 mL) sugar in a large mixing bowl.
Mix in cloves, mahaleb, and salt, and mix to fully incorporate the spices into the sugar and butter mixture.
Mix in the 7 cups (1.7 L) of flour in three stages, fully incorporating it into the butter and sugar each time, until the mixture feels dry, but still keeps together when compressed.
Take a piece of dough, and roll it into a circle about ½ inch (1 cm) thick. Brush the face of the dough with melted butter.
Scoop between ½ cup (120 mL) and ⅔ cups (160 mL) of the filling into the center of the dough, or enough that you will be able to fold up the edges of the dough and cover the filling.
Fold one edge of the dough to the center of the filling, then grab one of the corners that has formed, and fold that to the center. Continue to fold the dough towards the center until you have created a ball with the filling fully inside. Pinch the dough where the edges meet so that it stays closed.
Flatten the gata with a rolling pin so that it’s 1 ½ (3 cm) thick, and lay it out on a baking sheet.
Repeat steps 16 through 19 for each piece of dough.
Separate 2 eggs and retain the yolks.
Brush the tops and sides of the gata with the yolk. Be generous, and use more eggs if necessary.
Cover the gata with plastic wrap to rise one more time for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°
Separate 2 more eggs and retain the yolks.
Uncover the gata once they have risen and brush them with the yolks immediately before going in the oven.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on the top and bottom
Tools and Ingredients
Gata isn’t a small task, and there aren’t a lot of ways around all the physical work, but here’s some quality of life tools you can leverage to save your shoulders, and some ingredients you might not otherwise have.
A whisk https://amzn.to/3rQZDtp
A pastry brush https://amzn.to/3b7NfiM
Mahaleb
The above links are provided because Learn the Dish is an Amazon Associate. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from your qualifying purchases.
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