Kunafe is a popular Middle Eastern dessert that is enjoyed throughout the region and beyond. It is also known as Knafeh or Kunafa. It's a sweet, cheese-filled pastry made of shredded phyllo dough and a soft, white cheese like Akkawi or Nabulsi. The pastry is then soaked in a sweet syrup made of sugar, water, and rose or orange blossom water, which imparts a sweet and floral flavor to it.
Ingredients
For Sugar Syrup:
- Water 1 cup
- Sugar 1/2 cup
- Green cardamom 3
- Kewra water 1 Tsp
For Kunafa:
- Fried vermicelli (pheni) 200 grams / 1 packet
- Butter melted 1/2 cup
- Orange food color (optional) 1/2 Tsp
- Ricotta Cheese/cream cheese 200 grams
- Mozzarella Cheese 1/2 cup
Instructions
- In a pot add water, cardamom, sugar, mix well and cook for 20/25 minutes or until gets a bit thick consistency.
- Now add kewra water and set aside.
- In vermicelli add butter, food color, crush and mix well.
- Take a baking pan and grease it with butter.
- Layer with half of the vermicelli and press gently.
- Spread Ricotta cheese evenly, don’t spread it on the edges.
- Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
- Layer with remaining vermicelli and press gently.
- Now, bake it for 30 minutes at 200 C.
- Rest kunafa for 10 minutes and then flip onto a serving plate, drizzle sugar syrup and garnish with pistachios and dried rose petals.
I followed it exactly as written and it turned out perfectly.