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Knafeh

Filled with cheese and eaten hot the moment it leaves the tin, so the cheese pulls into threads.

Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, mozzarella whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

the cheese

the pastry

the syrup

to finish

Method

  1. IT IS FILLED WITH CHEESE AND EATEN HOT THE MOMENT IT LEAVES THE TIN, so the cheese pulls into threads. That is the dish and it has a working life of about ten minutes. Cut and lifted straight from the oven, a portion draws long strings of molten cheese behind it; twenty minutes later the cheese has set and it is a pleasant sweet pastry with a firm white layer in it. Everything is therefore prepared in advance and it is baked to be served -- never baked ahead and reheated, because reheated cheese goes rubbery and weeps oil.
  2. THE CHEESE MUST BE DESALTED FIRST. Akkawi and the other brining cheeses are packed in heavy brine. Sliced and soaked in several changes of cold water over three or four hours, tasting as you go, until it is barely salty. Used straight from its brine the dessert is inedible, and that is not a matter of taste -- it is genuinely too salty to eat with syrup.
  3. A LITTLE MOZZARELLA GOES IN FOR THE PULL. Akkawi alone melts softly but does not stretch far. Two hundred grams of drained mozzarella against six hundred of akkawi gives the long threads without making it taste of pizza.
  4. THE THREADS ARE RUBBED WITH CLARIFIED BUTTER BY HAND, EVERY ONE OF THEM. Cut short, pulled apart, and the butter worked through with the fingers for ten minutes until the whole mass has turned pale yellow. Butter poured over a packed tin runs to the bottom and the middle stays white, papery and soft.
  5. HOT PASTRY, COOL SYRUP, AND POURED ON AS IT COMES OUT. The syrup made first and left to cool completely. Hot syrup on hot pastry floods it limp; cool syrup is absorbed while the pastry stays crisp. This is the rule for every pastry of this kind and it is the one most often reversed.
  6. IT IS BAKED IN A SHALLOW TIN AND TURNED OUT UPSIDE DOWN. The bottom layer, pressed against the buttered tin, is the one that goes properly golden, so the whole thing is inverted onto a platter to serve. A pinch of colouring in the base layer is common and is cosmetic.
  7. The syrup ingredients boiled 10 MINUTES, the blossom water stirred in off the heat, and LEFT TO COOL COMPLETELY.
  8. The cheese sliced and SOAKED in several changes of cold water 3 to 4 HOURS, until BARELY SALTY. Drained and patted dry.
  9. Mixed with the drained mozzarella and the clotted cream.
  10. The butter melted and settled, and the clear fat poured off.
  11. The kadayıf threads cut short, pulled apart, and the clarified butter WORKED THROUGH WITH THE FINGERS 10 MINUTES until the whole mass is pale yellow.
  12. Half pressed FIRMLY into a buttered shallow tin dusted with the semolina.
  13. The cheese mixture spread over, leaving a clear margin.
  14. The rest of the threads pressed firmly on top.
  15. Baked at 190°C for 40 MINUTES, until the edges are deep golden.
  16. The COOL syrup poured over the moment it leaves the oven.
  17. TURNED OUT UPSIDE DOWN onto a platter, scattered with ground pistachios.
  18. TESTED: a portion lifted should draw THREADS of cheese. No pull means it has stood too long.
  19. Cut and served within 10 MINUTES.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Lebanon · All recipes