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.
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| 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
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| kunafa with semolina |
mhayara (Arabic محيرة) (mixed): a mixture of khishnah and na'ama
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Kunafa mabruma |
The Abbasid Caliphate cooks during
the 9th century made a
“crepe-like” pastry called qata’if wrapped around almond cream and drizzled
with honey. Still know today under the same name.
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| 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.
