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Tel Kadayıf

The butter is rubbed through every strand by hand before any of it is laid in the tray.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter).

Ingredients

the pastry

the syrup

Method

  1. THE BUTTER IS RUBBED THROUGH EVERY STRAND BY HAND BEFORE ANY OF IT IS LAID IN THE TRAY. This is the step, and it takes ten minutes of unglamorous work. The threads are pulled apart in a large bowl -- they arrive matted together -- and the melted butter is poured over and then worked through with the fingers, lifting and rubbing, until every single strand is coated and the mass has changed colour from white to pale yellow throughout. Only then is it pressed into the tin. Butter poured over the top of a packed tray runs down the cut lines and soaks the bottom, leaving the middle dry: those strands stay white, go soft and papery under the syrup, and the pastry has no crispness anywhere except the base.
  2. THE BUTTER IS CLARIFIED, OR AT LEAST THE MILK SOLIDS POURED OFF. Melted and left to settle, and the clear fat used. The milk solids in whole butter burn over the long bake and speckle the pale threads brown, and they also make the pastry soggy rather than crisp.
  3. THE THREADS ARE CUT ROUGHLY BEFORE BUTTERING. Across the mass with scissors or a knife, into lengths of five or six centimetres. Left full-length they cannot be distributed evenly and the finished tray pulls apart in ropes when a piece is lifted.
  4. HALF THE THREADS GO DOWN, THEN THE NUTS, THEN THE REST, AND IT IS PRESSED FIRMLY. Pressed down hard with the flat of the hand or the base of a glass. A loosely filled tray bakes into something that collapses and cannot be cut.
  5. HOT PASTRY, COOL SYRUP. The syrup is made first and left to cool while the pastry bakes, and poured over the moment the tray comes out of the oven. Hot syrup onto hot pastry floods it and it goes limp; cool syrup onto hot pastry is absorbed while the structure stays crisp. This is the rule for every pastry of this kind and it is the one most often got backwards.
  6. IT IS LEFT SIX HOURS AND NOT COVERED. Uncovered, at room temperature, until the syrup has gone fully in. A lid traps steam and softens the top.
  7. The syrup ingredients brought to the boil and simmered 12 MINUTES, then LEFT TO COOL COMPLETELY.
  8. The butter melted and left to settle; the clear fat poured off and the milk solids discarded.
  9. The kadayıf threads pulled apart in a large bowl and CUT ROUGHLY into 5 or 6 cm lengths.
  10. The clarified butter poured over and WORKED THROUGH WITH THE FINGERS 10 MINUTES, lifting and rubbing, until EVERY strand is coated and the whole mass is pale yellow.
  11. Half pressed FIRMLY into a buttered tin.
  12. The ground nuts spread evenly over.
  13. The remaining threads pressed firmly on top.
  14. Baked at 170°C for 45 to 50 MINUTES, until deep golden throughout -- not just on top.
  15. The COOL syrup poured evenly over the HOT pastry straight from the oven.
  16. LEFT UNCOVERED 6 HOURS at room temperature.
  17. TESTED: lifted with a palette knife, a piece should hold together and still be crisp. White strands in the middle mean the butter was not rubbed through.
  18. Cut into squares.

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 Turkey · All recipes