Knafeh

shredded pastry over molten white cheese, baked orange and soaked in orange-blossom syrup while it is still too hot to touch

Origin: Nablus & the Levant

From the journey of Wheat.

Knafeh is a cheese dessert and it is the best argument anywhere for the idea. A layer of unsalted stretchy white cheese is covered with kadayif, wheat pastry extruded into hair-fine strands, saturated with ghee, baked until the top is deep orange and crisp, then flooded with rose or orange-blossom syrup the moment it leaves the oven. It is turned out upside down so the crisp layer is on top and the cheese pulls in strings when it is cut. Nablus in the West Bank is the acknowledged home of the definitive version, knafeh nabulsieh, made with the local jibneh nabulsieh, a mild white brine cheese that must be soaked to draw the salt out before use. It is coloured orange, traditionally with a little annatto or food colouring, which is decorative rather than flavouring and is one of the few things about the dish that is honestly just for show. It is eaten across the Levant and each country claims a version. Jordan sells it by the kilo from dedicated shops where enormous round trays are cut down through the day and replaced continuously; Lebanon serves it inside a sesame bread roll for breakfast; Turkey makes künefe with a different cheese and a different pastry weight. In 2009 Nablus cooked a knafeh over seventy metres long that entered the Guinness records, which was as much a political statement as a culinary one. The temperature discipline is the whole craft. The syrup must be cool and the pastry hot, or the top goes soft; and it must be eaten within minutes, because knafeh that has stood is a different and much sadder thing.

Ingredients

400 g kadayif (shredded filo) pastry, thawed
200 g ghee or clarified butter, melted
600 g nabulsi or akkawi cheese, soaked, or 400g mozzarella plus 200g ricotta
0.25 tsp orange food colouring or a pinch of annatto (optional)

Syrup

400 g sugar
250 ml water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp orange blossom water
1 tsp rose water

To finish

60 g pistachios, finely chopped

Method

Make the syrup first so it has time to cool completely. Boil the sugar, water, and lemon juice for eight minutes until slightly thickened, take off the heat, stir in the flower waters, and set aside to go cold. Cold syrup onto hot pastry is the rule.
If using salted nabulsi or akkawi, soak it in several changes of cold water for two to three hours, tasting until only a trace of salt remains. Slice or grate it.
Pull the kadayif apart in a large bowl, working it with your fingers until the strands separate and there are no clumps. Cut it roughly with scissors two or three times.
Pour over the melted ghee and rub it through thoroughly with your hands for a good two minutes, so every strand is coated. Under-buttered kadayif bakes pale and chewy.
Stir the colouring, if using, into a spoonful of ghee and rub it through half the pastry.
Press that coloured half firmly into the base of a buttered 28cm round tin, packing it down hard and evenly.
Spread the cheese over it, leaving a small border, then cover with the remaining pastry and press down again.
Bake at 200°C for thirty-five to forty minutes, until the edges are deep gold and the base, checked by lifting a corner, has coloured properly.
Take it out and immediately pour the cold syrup evenly over the whole surface. It will hiss. Leave three minutes.
Invert onto a board or platter so the base becomes the top, scatter the pistachios, and cut and serve at once whilst the cheese still pulls.

Notes

Hot pastry, cold syrup; getting this the wrong way round gives a soggy knafeh and there is no recovering it. Soak salted cheese properly or the dessert will be inedible. Mozzarella and ricotta together make a good stand-in, mozzarella for the pull and ricotta for the softness. It must be eaten within about ten minutes of leaving the oven; knafeh does not keep and reheating gives back none of the texture.

The Gastrographer

Name: Knafeh
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Nablus & the Levant
Ingredients: 400 g kadayif (shredded filo) pastry, thawed; 200 g ghee or clarified butter, melted; 600 g nabulsi or akkawi cheese, soaked, or 400g mozzarella plus 200g ricotta; 0.25 tsp orange food colouring or a pinch of annatto (optional); 400 g sugar; 250 ml water; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 tbsp orange blossom water; 1 tsp rose water; 60 g pistachios, finely chopped

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control