Armenian cuisine is surprisingly diverse and somewhat exotic. Culinary traditions of Armenian regions inevitably differ from each other. They’ve been created and perfected over centuries, handed over from family to family, and brightened life of the people with a variety of flavors and aromas.

Brave chefs, the Armenians, are fearlessly experimenting with cooking. That is why there are so many recipes of the same treats, including pasrty recipes. These are at least recipes a dozen of gata recipes. And right now I’m going to share one gata recipe with you. We’ll cook gata from the town of Alaverdi, following the recipe of my good friend Ruben Pogosyan, Chef at Tufenkyan Restaurants.

Traditional Armenian gata is sweet dessert and, I suppose, the most popular Armenian cookies recipe. It looks like pies with vanilla filling or puff pastry.

Armenian gata has different names in different regions of the country: gata, katah or kada. As a matter of fact, that’s a sweet dessert, the most popular Armenian pastry. It looks like pies with vanilla filling or puff pastry. Gata is easy to cook, but its taste is unusual and complex

Gata is very popular and respected in Armenian cuisine. High-skilled chefs and experienced housewives bake it for all holidays, even for weddings. On this day, the bride, alongside with her dowry, brings a large tray of baklava and necessarily 4-6 sheets of gata. When women are dressing the bride, they are treated with gata, beautifully wrapped in transparent paper. Gata was even noticed in the very popular movie “Prisoner of the Caucasus.” You see, now you have to try it :)

Gata recipe – traditional Armenian pastry

Gata - Armenian cookies recipe
 
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Recipe type: Drsserts
Cuisine: Armenian Cuisine
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 6 g salt
  • 300 g sugar
  • 550 g flour
  • 1 egg
  • 450 g sour cream
  • 300 g butter
  • 200 g nuts
  • 5 g baking soda
  • 2 g vanillin
Instructions
  1. Mix 200 g butter with 100 g sugar, sour cream (mixed with baking soda), 450 g flour. Add the mixture to the butter and sugar.
  2. Knead the soft dough.
For filling:
  1. Mix 200 g sugar, 100 g flour, 200 g nuts and 200 g butter.
  2. Divide the dough into 3 balls, open each ball, add the filling, close the dough, turn it over and straighten into circles.
  3. Bake in the oven at the temperature of 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Traditional Armenian gata is sweet dessert and, I suppose, the most popular Armenian cookies recipe. It looks like pies with vanilla filling or puff pastry.