Armenian Nazook

Recipe adapted from Jason at Daily Candor.

For the pastry:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift in flour. (You can use your hands; I used my mixer). Add the dry yeast and combine well. Mix in the sour cream and butter. Work it into a dough, about 1-2 minutes on medium speed.

If using a mixer, switch to a dough hook and on medium high, knead for about 8 minutes until dough pulls into form with no stickiness. If making by hand, continue to knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. If it remains very sticky, add some flour, a little at a time.

Cover the dough or place in a large Ziploc bag and refrigerate for 3-5 hours.

For the vanilla nut filling:
With your hands or using the food processor, mix together filling ingredients until the texture resembles crumbly, slightly coarse breadcrumbs.

For the coconut cardamom filling:
Mix together the ingredients until sugars blend in evenly with coconut.

For the final assembly:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cut the refrigerated dough into 2 halves. Form each half into a ball. Dust your work surface with a little flour. Roll out each dough ball into 2 large rectangles.The dough should be thin, but not transparent (approximately 9×13 inches).

Spread one filling mixture for each piece of rolled dough, lengthwise across the rectangle in an even layer (vanilla for one and the coconut for the other rectangle).

From the long side of one rectangle (nearest to you), start slowly rolling the dough up and away from you. Be careful to make sure the filling stays evenly distributed. Roll all the way across until you have a long thin cylindrical loaf. Repeat with the other rectangle.

Pat down the loaf with your palm and fingers so that it flattens out a bit (just a bit).

Carefully put loaves onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Apply your egg wash with a pastry brush over the pieces.

Use a crinkle cutter (or knife) to cut the loaf into 10 equally-sized pieces, with both loaves yielding a total of 20 pieces.

Place in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the tops are golden brown.