According to Food & Wine, bourma is a rich, sticky, and sweet phyllo dough-based dessert studded with nuts and redolent with butter. In some ways, it may be similar to baklava, but it truly stands alone. Bourma is explicitly Armenian. Food & Wine defines bourma as “a phyllo-based dish filled with walnuts that is baked and then doused with sugar syrup.” The most interesting component about making bourma? It calls for a thin dowel, which in many instances is actually an “heirloom often passed down in Armenian families.” After brushing with nuts and melted butter, the uber-thin dough is rolled up with the dowel and then “scrunched” up, before being slid off and placed on a baking sheet.
Bourma’s signature look is “crispy and scrunched” according to a recipe shared by Food & Wine, and a Saveur story even calls them “accordion pastry.” Their recipe also calls for cinnamon and rosewater. Additionally, it mentions a variation on bourma called glore, which is bourma “curved into a circle before baking, then filled with more nuts in the center.” How delicious does that sound? While the flavors may vary slightly depending on the recipe, if you’re unable to eat nuts, then bourma unfortunately may not be the dessert for you.
This recipe was featured in a story by Polly Clingerman, cookbook author (The Kitchen Companion and Polly Clingerman’s Dinner Companion) and reporter about the many devoted members of the Women’s Guild at St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church in Washington, D.C. It was published on November 3, 1993 in the Washington Post about the Guild’s Annual Food Festival recipes and advance food preparations. The Women’s Guild activities include various service projects for the parish: Annual Women’s Saints Day Celebration; fundraising activities such as the Annual Food Festival and Lenten Food Festival and Armenian Cultural and Christian educational programs.
The story began, “Every autumn for 44 years, the women of St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church have plunged into a six-week frenzy of chopping and stirring and rolling and patting and baking that ends in four days of glorious eating: the buffet lunches and weekend dinners of the annual bazaar. Today, when the bazaar opens its doors for the 45th year, Washingtonians will throng buffet and carryout lines. Many will leave laden with jars and bowls of soups and spicy mixtures (the regulars bring empties), boxes and bags of pastries, meatballs and meat pies. And no wonder. The food is rich-flavored, but the cooks are quick to point out that Armenians don’t do much frying.”
(Makes about 50 to 60 pieces)
Ingredients:
