My favorite thing about this gata—aside from its good looks and deliciousness—may be the way it’s shaped, which is both straightforward and forgiving: Once you’ve pressed and rolled the dough out into a 12-inch-wide round, you place the filling in the center of it, fold and pleat the dough over the filling until it’s fully enclosed, and then you press and roll it into a disc again. It’s pretty easy to do, but the good news is—unlike other, similar preparations, like dumplings, which I’ve found are a challenge to shape prettily without lots of practice—the gata is very forgiving, because the dough is Play-Doh-malleable and the pleated part ends up on the underside, hiding any imperfections. As for the ornamentation, I opt for a simple crisscross pattern made with the tines of a fork on the top of the dough created, along with pleats around the outer rim. I mention this below, but it bears repeating: the dough puffs up as it bakes, softening the edges of the pleats and lines, so you should make them as sharp and dramatic as possible if you want traces of your art to remain.
