SUPER EASY KUNAFA RECIPE

posted by : Lyla 0 Comment

There’s nothing quite like cutting into a warm, cheesy piece of kunafa during these Ramadan nights <3 I want to make your quarantine days just a little bit sweeter by sharing this extremely simple recipe with you.

For the last 3 years, I have been trying to perfect a Kunafa recipe because I love it so much! Whenever my family would go to the community gatherings there would always be a Kunafa dish brought in. The reason I didn’t know much about it was because it’s not a traditional Egyptian Dish.

Kunafa Nubulsiyyeh originates in the Palestinian West Bank city, Nablus. For many years, it has been a staple for Palestinian cuisine and symbolic to their persevering culture. Kunafa can be made in two ways: Na’ameh (fine) and Khishneh (rough). It can be filled with a variety of things, including: cream, cheese, or nuts.

The best part about this recipe is that it is very easy to make, hard to mess up, and you can be sure that it will be a crowd pleaser!

I am going to show you how I make the Khishneh (rough) cheese stuffed version of Kunafa Nabulsiyyeh!

** Disclaimer: this most definitely will not be the traditional way to make it, just the easy way that I figured out how to make it lol.

Ingredients:

For the Kunafa:

  • 16 oz Apollo Kataifi Shredded Phyllo Dough (unthawed)
  • 1/2 c. Melted Butter
  • 2 Tbsp. Sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. of Kunafa Coloring (optinal)
  • 16 oz Sweet Arabic Cheese or Akawi Cheese (after soaking atleast 2 hours in water)
  • 2 tsp rose water or orange blossom water
  • Crushed Pistachios for garnish

For the Syrup:

  • 2 1/4 c. sugar
  • 1 1/2 c. water
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp rose water

Directions:

For the Syrup:

(I RECOMMEND DOING THIS STEP FIRST)

  1. Place the the water, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium heat. Make sure to continuously stir as the syrup heats up.
  2. Once you notice the syrup boiling, immediately reduce the heat to low and allow it to simmer for about 10 minutes uncovered.
  3. Add in your rose water or orange blossom water and simmer for another minute.
  4. Allow to cool down

For the Pastry:

  1. Preheat your oven to about 375 F and grease your pan with a small piece of butter. Throw in your Kunafa food coloring (optional) and mix it in with the butter as you coat your pan. This will give your dessert a beautiful orange color once it’s done.
  2. Combine the sweet cheese and 2 Tbsp. of sugar in a bowl. Make sure that the cheese is broken into small pieces! Put the bowl to the side.
  3. In another bowl, shred all of the Kataifi Dough, I spend about 4-5 minutes shredding it by hand or you could put it in the food processor just until it becomes loose and easy to separate. Don’t over do it.
  4. Add 1 1/2 c. of butter to the dough and mix well.
  5. Place 1/2 of the Kataifi Dough into your pan, making sure it is all evenly distributed, and then press down on it with your hands. Spread the cheese all over the dough until well distributed. Make sure the cheese doesn’t get all the way to the edges of the pan because it could burn. Lastly, place the last 1/2 of the dough over the cheese, and pat down until it’s even.
  6. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the pastry is a light golden brown.
  7. After about 5 minutes, you want to invert the pastry onto another pan before it settles in the original pan. Garnish as desired.

FINAL STEP: The best part!! After you finish garnishing your pastry, you want to make sure to put the cooled syrup on while the kunafa is still warm. This allows the syrup to soak into the pastry more efficiently!

yalla, enjoy 🙂 I hope you like it! If you try making it, let me know what you think! 🙂

About The Author

Lyla