Lebanese Knafeh (a.k.a. Knafeh Na3meh)
Knafeh is a dessert that is enjoyed by many people from Turkey, the Levant region, and Egypt. It’s basically a thin crust of buttery katifi dough cooked until golden with a layer of melty cheese underneath topped with an orange blossom and rose water syrup. There are many ways to make knafeh but in Lebanon we make a very crumbly knafeh, with pine nuts, and a flavorful syrup with orange blossom and rose water.
While the traditional method of making knafeh at the sweet shops in Lebanon is a bit different (they bake a dough than process it to a sand like powder), this method that my mom uses to make knafeh for years at home is very similar. My mother uses a meat grinder to process the kataifi dough with the butter and she successfully gets a fine powder like the traditional knafeh but if you don’t have access to a meat grinder, a food processor will work as well.
Recipes: (makes 4 individual size knafeh pans or a 10 inch pan)
250-300g Kataifi dough (fresh or frozen)
4 tbsp unsalted butter or ghee, soften
Plus 1 tbsp butter for coating pan
1 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tsp rose water
a couple pine nuts (optional, can replace with pistachio)
3 cups full cream style Mozzarella in brine (or akawi cheese or nabulsi cheese)*
2 cups Lebanese syrup:
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp orange blossom water
1 tsp rose water
a couple drops of lemon juice
*Since we live in the U.S., Akawi and Nablusi cheese are not easy to find, we use a cheese called full cream style Mozzarella Cheese Curd in the brine Gold from a brand called Polly-O. We purchase is from Restaurant Depot.
Directions:
Making the syrup:
In a small saucepan, add sugar, water, and lemon juice. Mix slightly to incorporate the sugar and water but make sure the sides of the pan don’t have sugar. Wipe the sides if there is sugar.
Place the sauce pan on the stovetop and cook on a medium heat until the sugar is melted and it starts to slightly simmer. Turn down the heat and let it thicken for 5 minutes. Then remove from heat and add the rose water and orange blossom.
Making the knafeh crust:
You can find Kataifi dough in the frozen section of most grocery stores near the phyllo dough. In this recipe I use half of the package, you can double the recipe for a big pan or process the kataifi for a knafeh crust as directed below and freeze it.
In a bowl, add the kataifi dough, and start to pull it apart with your fingers.
Then add the powdered sugar, rose water, and soften butter. Mix the ingredients and start to coat the strands of kataifi dough with the butter.
Grab half the portion (or a third based on your food processer) and place the buttered kataifi dough in the food processer.
On high speed, process it for a couple seconds until the dough is almost sand like or into very tiny pieces. Repeat until all your kataifi strands are processed.
Alternatively to get the really fine dough, you have to process it in a meat grinder.
Place the processed dough back into a bowl and set aside.
Use 4 individual 4 inch knafeh pans or a 10 inch round pan.
Butter each pan than sprinkle a few pine nuts.
If using the individual pans than divide the dough in four portions. Each portion should be a little over 1/4 cup.
Spread evenly onto the pan on top of the pine nuts and press gently with the back of a measuring cup.
Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes at 400 F until you see the edges of the pan are golden. Each oven is different so keep an eye on the knafeh crust.
Adding the cheese:
As I said above, we don’t have access to the traditional Akawi or Nabulsi cheese all the time. But we found this type of cheese and brand that works perfectly for desserts here in the U.S. and we prefer it better than the traditional cheeses. It also require less preparation. You don’t have to de-salt it. If you purchase this cheese, then you can freeze it into portions.
Crumble the cheese straight onto the knafeh crust in the pan using your fingers. Crumbling will help the cheese melt faster.
Lower the oven heat to 350 F and place the pan on the middle rack and allow the cheese to melt for 5-10 minutes (keep an eye on it, based on pan size)
The cheese should only melt and not brown.
Remove from the oven and immediately flip onto a plate or a bigger platter.
The crust will look dry at this point, don’t worry.
Immediately drizzle with about half a cup of the syrup, reserve some of the for individual serving so everyone can add their preferred amount of syrup.
If you are serving knafeh at a gathering than make the knafeh as directed, Flip it onto another pan, then reheat at 300 F for about 10 minutes to re-melt the cheese. Or you can reheat individual pieces in the microwave.
