Aghi Gesgoudz – Armenian Savoury Cookies

We are back with yet another month of mega marathon. This April we have decided to burn our ovens. Yes we have done a month long marathon of bakes around 2 years back but this time it is very different. Valli has put in a lot of extra challenges. We will be baking dishes from around the world this time. We will be baking dishes from different countries.

As usual I am not ready this time also :-) I decided very late, just around mid-march but really loved this challenge. And my guru is Gayathri. Her blog had such a wonderful spread of baked goodies that 80-90% of my list was ready by just visiting her blog. Since the list was made, I decided to go ahead with the challenge.

Ofcourse baking requires a little more time than our usual cooking and baked items are generally not part of meals. These were the additional challenges. But I found that with perfect planning and execution as planned these challenges could be easily handled. Yeah I am just done with 2 recipes as of now. But I am full of spirit. So here goes the first one.

Recipe Source: Gayathriscookspot
Country: Armenia

Ingredients:

Flour / Maida - 2 cups
Baking Powder - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Icing Sugar - 1 1/2 tbsp
Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 1/4 cup, melted
Oil - 1/2 cup
Curd - 1/2 cup
Poppy Seeds/ Sesame Seeds For Topping

Method:

• In a bowl mix together flour, icing sugar, cardamom powder, salt and baking powder.
• In another bowl mix together curd, melted butter and oil.
• Now add the flour to the wet ingredients and mix with a spoon to incorporate.
• Cover with wrap and set it in fridge for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 160°C.
• Grease a baking tray with butter.
• Divide dough into 20 equal portions.
• Roll each portion into a thick rope and join the ends to form a twist.
• Arrange the twists a little apart. Brush the cookies with milk and top with poppy seeds or sesame seeds.
• Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until nicely golden in colour.
• Cool on wire rack and store in airtight jar.

Notes:

• While twisting, make 3-4 twists, since I saw that the twists slowly disappear with time.
• Keep the twists well spaced apart while baking. During baking they have expanded to almost double the size.
• I used coconut oil, since thats the oil I usually use in my cooking. But coconut oil doesn't go well with this bread. So try it out with olive oil or sunflower oil.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 75

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