Kunāfah

Kanafah (Arabic: كنافة‎‎ kunāfah, Turkish: künefe, Azerbaijani: ریشته ختایی riştə xətayi, Greek: κανταΐφι kadaïfi/kataïfi, Hebrew: כנאפה‎‎ knafeh), also spelled kunafeh or kunafah is a Middle Eastern cheese pastry soaked in sweet, sugar-based syrup, typical of the regions belonging to the former Ottoman Empire. It is a specialty of the Levant and adjoining areas of Egypt and Turkey.

Appetizing presentation

Main ingredients are dough in filaments, sugar, cheese, pistachio, rose water, kaymak (cream)

Kanafeh pastry comes in three types:

khishnah coarse (Arabic خشنه): crust made from long thin noodle threads

na'ama (Arabic ناعمة) (fine): semolina dough

kunafa with semolina

mhayara (Arabic محيرة) (mixed): a mixture of khishnah and na'ama

dough ready to spread

The pastry is heated in butter, margarine, palm oil, or traditionally semneh and then spread with soft white cheese, such as Nabulsi cheese, and topped with more pastry. In khishnah kanafeh the cheese is rolled in the pastry. A thick syrup of sugar, water, and a few drops of rose water or orange blossom water is poured on the pastry during the final minutes of cooking. Often the top layer of pastry shops is tinted with red food coloring (a modern shortcut, instead of baking it for long periods of time). Crushed pistachios are sprinkled on top as a garnish.

Knafeh in Nablus

Variation with kunafa

Kanafeh was first mentioned in the 10th century.

It is generally believed to have originated in the Palestinian city of Nablus hence the name Nabulsieh. Nablus is still renowned for its kanafeh, which consists of mild white cheese and shredded wheat surface, which is covered by sugar syrup. In the Levant, this variant of kanafeh is the most common. The largest plate of kanafeh was made in Nablus. in an attempt to win a Palestinian citation in the Guinness World Records. It measured 75×2 meters and weighed 1,350 kilograms.

Turkish künefe and Turkish tea (çay)

The Turkish variant of the pastry kanafeh is called künefe and the wire shreds are called tel kadayıf. A semi-soft cheese such as Urfa peyniri (cheese of Urfa, or Hatay peyniri, cheese of Hatay), made of raw milk, is used in the filling. In making the künefe, the kadayıf is not rolled around the cheese; instead, cheese is put in between two layers of wiry kadayıf. It is cooked in small copper plates, and then served very hot in syrup with clotted cream (kaymak) and topped with pistachios or walnuts. In the Turkish cuisine, there is also yassı kadayıf and ekmek kadayıfı, none of which is made of wirey shreds.

making of the dough wires

Riştə Xətayi

This type of Azerbaijani variant is prepared in Tabriz, Iran. «Riştə Xətayi» is called to mesh shreds that are cooked typically in Ramadan in the world's biggest covered Bazaar of Tabriz. It is made of chopped walnuts, cinnamon, ginger, powder of rose, sugar, water, rose water, olive oil.

Kadaif

In this variant, called also καταΐφι or κανταΐφι in Greek (kataïfi or kadaïfi), the threads are used to make pastries of various forms (tubes or nests), often with a filling of chopped nuts as in baklava.

A Bosnian style kadaif pastry is made by putting down a layer of wire kadaif, then a layer of a filling of chopped nuts, then another layer of wire kadaif. The pastries are painted with melted butter, baked until golden brown and then drenched in sugar or honey syrup.

The dessert is usually made with long, thin strands of shredded phyllo dough known as kataifi. In fact, the word, kunafa is used interchangeably to describe both the dessert and the dough. The dough is usually fried or baked with butter or oil until it is crisp. In some variations, the kunafa is made with rich, cake-like semolina dough instead.

Kunafa mabruma

The Abbasid Caliphate cooks during the 9^th century  made a “crepe-like” pastry called qata’if wrapped around almond cream and drizzled with honey. Still know today under the same name.

robin nest kunafa

By the 10th century, Middle Eastern cooks began to bake “thinly sliced … qata’if and tossed the shreds with honey,” perfected later by Nablus cooks to become the kunafa of today, much later was the qata’if batter poured “into thin lines onto a hot metal sheet.” to form the uncooked dough. 

This new method of cooking the dough became the norms for the kunafa we see today.

data collected from internet