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In Yerevan gata, the layers of dough are made first<\/h2>\n
The cookbook \u201cArmenian Cuisine,\u201d published in Moscow in 1960, includes gata under regional names. For its Yerevan gata, a yeasted dough is made by the straight-dough method. In the straight-dough method, the dough is made without fermenting a separate sponge.<\/p>\n
This dough is rolled out to a thickness of 1.5\u20132 millimeters, brushed with melted butter and folded in half. Rolling it out again and brushing it with butter is repeated 4\u20135 times, after which the dough is rolled into a log and cut. Each cut piece is rolled out into a round, and only then is the khoriz wrapped inside. The filling is made by rubbing clarified butter into wheat flour, adding powdered sugar and crumbling the mixture finely.<\/p>\n
The shaped gata are placed seam side down, brushed with egg yolk, pricked with a fork and baked. The finished thickness is 1.5\u20132 centimeters. The structure consists of a layered crust enclosing the filling gathered in the center. In addition to the clarified butter used in the filling, the formula also includes butter for the layering. Three uses of fat overlap in a single gata: fat mixed into the dough, fat that creates the layers and fat in the filling.<\/p>\n
The same book\u2019s Leninakan gata is made by the same procedure as the Yerevan gata, but no sugar is added to the filling. The filling consists of wheat flour, clarified butter and salt. The powdered sugar of the sweet khoriz is omitted, and a filling of flour and fat is wrapped in the dough and baked. This version, recorded under Leninakan, the regional name in use at the time, is also counted as a type of gata.<\/p>\n Stepanavan gata uses a sponge. A sponge is made by first combining part of the flour, the yeast and part of the water and letting the mixture ferment. The remaining ingredients are then added to make the final dough. This version uses milk, eggs, butter and sugar, so the dough of the crust itself is also sweet.<\/p>\n The rolled-out dough is brushed with melted butter, folded over like an envelope and brushed with more butter, and then the filling is placed on it. The dough is drawn in from all four sides to enclose the filling, turned over and rolled out to an even thickness. In this sequence, the folded dough wraps a single mass of filling. In addition to powdered sugar, the filling is flavored with lemon zest or vanilla.<\/p>\n Kirovakan gata, which also uses a sponge, is made by rolling the dough out to about 5 millimeters, brushing it with butter and spreading the filling over it to a thickness of 2\u20133 millimeters. The dough is then rolled into a log and cut, and each piece is pinched closed at both ends and rolled out into a round. Finally, the edge is pinched up to form a low rim.<\/p>\n Because the surface spread with filling is rolled inward in Kirovakan gata, the dough and filling are shaped into a disc while layered together. Yerevan gata wraps the filling afterward in dough that has already been layered with fat, whereas Kirovakan gata rolls the filling in with the dough before reshaping it. Both are baked as rounds, but they differ in the steps that determine where the filling is placed.<\/p>\n The same book\u2019s Artsakh gata also uses a sponge, and butter, sugar and eggs are added to the final dough. The dough is rolled out into a round and brushed with butter, the filling is placed on it, and the edges are gathered to close it. In this version, the filling is wrapped without repeated folding or rolling, and 200 grams of filling is used for every 250 grams of dough. Each regional recipe combines the fermentation method, the sweetness of the crust, the amount of filling and the order of wrapping in its own way.<\/p>\n The etymology of gata has not been established. Hasmik Hmayakyan, who studied the name, cites the fable \u201cThe Pig and the Gata\u201d by the medieval preacher Vardan Aygektsi as an early example of its use. In the story, a pig eating gata raises its head, spilling the filling, and looks at the disc of the sun; both the pastry and its filling appear in the text. When the pastry was first made is unknown.<\/p>\n The linguist Gevorg Jahukyan regards the similarity in sound to the French word g\u00e2teau, meaning cake, as a coincidence. Hmayakyan also proposes a connection with a Hittite word for bread, but the composition of that food is not known, and this idea is presented as an etymological hypothesis.<\/p>\n Traditionally, gata has been baked in an earthen oven called a tonir. When gata was made communally in villages, neighboring women joined the women of the household to knead the dough and fire the oven. For surface decoration, besides cuts and dough ornaments, a stamp called a gatanakhshich is also used to press in patterns. The gatanakhshich is a wooden stamp that presses shapes such as the sun or the moon into the soft dough, leaving a pattern before baking.<\/p>\n Gata was also a food given as a gift at weddings. The t\u2018el-gat\u2018a made in New Nakhichevan had khoriz inside thin layers of greased dough and was patterned with a thin wooden rolling pin. A few days before a wedding, older women among the relatives and neighbors gathered to bake them. On the eve of the wedding, young relatives rode on horseback from house to house, handing out one each to deliver the invitation.<\/p>\n In Javakhk, gathering to bake was itself a ritual. People brought butter, eggs and milk and gathered at the house of the groom-to-be. Flour was sifted with lights and music, the close relatives who stayed behind baked a large number of gata, and each person took one home when leaving. Gata was not only placed on the festive table. It was a pastry for which people brought ingredients, baked together, and carried as invitations and gifts.<\/p>\n Mijink, discussed by Hmayakyan, is the day that falls in the middle of Lent. Customs on this day included putting beads, rings, coins and similar items into gata or a bread called balarj to tell fortunes. The gata and bread were said to be shared not only with the family but also with livestock and the land, and this sharing carried wishes for the household\u2019s livelihood in the year ahead.<\/p>\n Today, gata is also an everyday pastry eaten with tea or coffee. Around Garni and Geghard, large round gata are well known. At Geghard, gata with patterns or place names on the surface are sold along the road leading to the monastery.<\/p>\n In the village of Khachik in Vayots Dzor Province, a festival celebrating gata is held in autumn. Village bakers bake large gata and share them with visitors, and singing, dancing and a crafts market are also part of the event. The custom of making gata together and giving it to others continues in an event that welcomes visitors to the village.<\/p>\n Methods of making gata have also been passed on to households abroad. Anushka Zargaryan, an Armenian cook in Australia, presents a dough that combines yogurt, eggs, butter, wheat flour, salt and baking soda. Another method spreads a filling of toasted flour, walnuts, sugar and plant-based fat over store-bought pastry dough, which is then rolled up into a butterfly shape. Whether made with dough kneaded at home or with store-bought pastry dough, gata with a flour filling is baked with ingredients suited to the place where it is made.<\/p>\n Victoria, a food writer whose family has roots in Yerevan, presents a gata made with sour cream that she learned from her aunt. Sour cream is cream with a sour taste produced by lactic fermentation. For this dough, butter is mixed into the flour, and the dough is then folded and refrigerated overnight. The next day, a fine filling of flour, butter, sugar and vanilla is spread over it, and the dough is rolled up, flattened slightly, brushed with egg and cut. Unlike laminated pastry, in which a separate block of butter is enclosed, this family method creates layers through the fat mixed into the dough and the folding.<\/p>\n Sour cream<\/strong>: Cream with a sour taste produced by lactic fermentation.<\/p> Victoria<\/strong>: The writer of the food website Mission Food Adventure. Her family has roots in Yerevan, and she presents a gata she learned from her aunt.<\/p> Khoriz<\/strong>: A filling of flour and fat wrapped inside gata. Versions with added sugar are well known.<\/p> Clarified butter<\/strong>: Fat made by removing water and milk solids from butter.<\/p> Straight-dough method<\/strong>: A method of making dough without fermenting a separate sponge.<\/p> Sponge<\/strong>: A dough made by first combining part of the flour, yeast and water and letting it ferment.<\/p> Yerevan<\/strong>: The capital of Armenia. A gata bearing this regional name appears in the 1960 cookbook.<\/p> Leninakan<\/strong>: The regional name given in the 1960 cookbook to a gata whose filling contains no sugar.<\/p> Stepanavan<\/strong>: A region whose version, in which a sponge dough is folded over and wraps the filling, appears in the cookbook.<\/p> Kirovakan<\/strong>: A regional name whose version, in which dough spread with filling is rolled up and then shaped into a round, appears in the cookbook.<\/p> Artsakh<\/strong>: The regional name of a gata that uses a sponge and wraps the filling in dough rolled out into a round.<\/p> Tonir<\/strong>: An Armenian earthen oven.<\/p> Gatanakhshich<\/strong>: A stamp used to press patterns onto the surface of gata.<\/p> T\u2018el-gat\u2018a<\/strong>: A gata with thin layers, also handed out as a wedding invitation in New Nakhichevan.<\/p> New Nakhichevan<\/strong>: An Armenian settlement where the wedding custom of making t\u2018el-gat\u2018a was recorded.<\/p> Javakhk<\/strong>: A region where a wedding ritual of baking gata together was recorded in ethnographic studies.<\/p> Mijink<\/strong>: The day in the middle of Lent in Armenia.<\/p> Balarj<\/strong>: The name of a bread used in Armenian rituals.<\/p> Lent<\/strong>: The Christian period of abstinence observed before Easter.<\/p> Khachik<\/strong>: A village in Armenia\u2019s Vayots Dzor Province where a gata festival is held.<\/p> Garni \/ Geghard<\/strong>: Places in Armenia also known for large round gata.<\/p> Hasmik Hmayakyan<\/strong>: A researcher who has studied the name of gata and the rituals associated with it.<\/p> Vardan Aygektsi<\/strong>: A medieval Armenian preacher and fable writer.<\/p> Gevorg Jahukyan<\/strong>: An Armenian linguist.<\/p> Hittite<\/strong>: A language used in ancient Anatolia. It is compared in studies of the etymology of gata.<\/p> Anushka Zargaryan<\/strong>: An Armenian cook in Australia who presents a method of making gata.<\/p> Recipe<\/strong>: A complete set of ingredient proportions and the method of preparation.<\/p> Victoria, Mission Food Adventure, \u201cArmenian Gata\u201d (December 21, 2015; updated June 29, 2020)<\/a>: Lines 44\u201395 of the source were read directly, covering the family background and the dough inherited from her aunt, including the fat, folding, refrigeration and rolling. This is one household\u2019s recipe, not a standard for the city as a whole.<\/p>\n<\/li> \u0410. \u0421. \u041f\u0438\u0440\u0443\u0437\u044f\u043d (ed.), \u201c\u0410\u0440\u043c\u044f\u043d\u0441\u043a\u0430\u044f \u043a\u0443\u043b\u0438\u043d\u0430\u0440\u0438\u044f,\u201d 1960, pp. 138\u2013140<\/a> \u2014 Regional sponges, folding of the dough, wrapping of the filling, and the formula for the unsweetened filling.<\/p>\n<\/li> Hasmik Hmayakyan, \u201cThe Word Gat\u2018a in the Armenian Language,\u201d 2022<\/a> \u2014 History of the name, the medieval fable, regional wedding customs and Mijink. The ethnographies and dictionaries cited in this source were not consulted.<\/p>\n<\/li> Making of the Armenian Gata and its Cultural Manifestations<\/a> \u2014 Ovens, stamps, communal baking and culture.<\/p>\n<\/li> Smithsonian My Armenia, \u201cGata Festival\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The Khachik festival and the sharing of gata.<\/p>\n<\/li> SBS Armenian, \u201cGata\u201d<\/a> \u2014 A household formula using yogurt and baking soda.<\/p>\n<\/li>![\"Layered](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/7c851c8a5f1e7350790b6b769c191d7f04e4d3d167ba8a4ed264a6fa6ce00864.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
\nDough made with a sponge, and dough rolled up with the filling<\/h2>\n
A name preserved in a medieval fable<\/h2>\n
Stamping patterns and inviting guests to weddings<\/h2>\n
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\nOne roadside gata, and Khachik in autumn<\/h2>\n
Glossary<\/h2>\n
References<\/h2>\n
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Armenian_gata_with_layers.jpg\"){kind=link}
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