Cookbook corner: Kataifi (Kanafeh)
Kataifi (or Kanafeh) is a traditional, sweet Middle Eastern dessert popular in countries such as Greece, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. Recipes and ingredients can vary depending on the region but this amazing dessert is often made with roughly chopped walnuts, ground cloves and cinnamon then encased into buttery kataifi dough and drenched in syrup. Simply delicious. Our recipe is simple and easy to follow and we don’t use nuts, but it’s just as tasty and will have you coming back for more.
Ingredients
Kataifi
400g Kutaifi pastry
227g butter
375g mozzarella
Semolina mix
400ml milk
200ml double cream
40g granulated sugar
40g semolina
3g cornflour
5g water
5g orange blossom water
Sugar Syrup
250g granulated sugar
175ml water
1 teaspoon orange blossom water
Method
Pull the pastry apart so it is split up.
Melt the butter and add to the pastry and mix in.
Lightly grease a 12”/30 cm round cake tin.
Take half the kataifi pastry and place it around the bottom of the cake tin.
Place all the semolina mixture in a saucepan and gently heat up, stirring all the time, till the mixture thickens.
Cut the mozzarella cheese in round circles and layer on top of the pastry in the cake tin.
Pour the semolina mix on top on the mozzarella.
Place the remaining pastry on top of all the mixture.
Bake in the oven on 180˚c fan oven till golden brown
In the meantime place all the sugar syrup mix in a pan and heat up.
Once it is boiling turn it down to simmer for 10 minutes then turn off.
When the kataifi is cooked, gently pour as much syrup as you would like all over. We tend not to put it all on as it can make it quite sweet, but it is down to personal taste.
If there is syrup leftover you can pour into a jug and let your guests add more sugar syrup if they would like it sweeter.
Head over to our YouTube channel to see Carole in action.
