Kunafa — hot cheese pastry in orange-blossom syrup

i. Origin & history

Kunafa is old. Sweet dishes of the name appear in medieval Arabic cookery books, and a popular legend says kunafa was prepared for an early caliph to keep hunger at bay during the Ramadan fast; like most such stories it is impossible to confirm. What is clear is that kunafa developed across the Mamluk and Ottoman worlds, in Cairo, Damascus and the cities of Palestine, and that the name came to cover a family of desserts made with the same shredded pastry, called kunafa in Arabic and kataifi or kadayıf in Greek and Turkish.

Nablus, in the northern West Bank, is the city most identified with the cheese version. Knafeh nabulsiyyeh is made with Nabulsi cheese — a brined white sheep's or goat's milk cheese, flavoured with mahlab and nigella seeds — desalted and spread in a large round tray under the pastry. Nablus's sweet shops turn out enormous trays of it daily, cut into squares and sold hot, and it is a source of real local pride. Akkawi cheese, named after the city of Acre, is the other classic choice.

Kunafa comes in several textures. Khishneh ('rough') uses long strands of shredded pastry; na'meh ('fine') uses pastry rubbed or ground into small crumbs, giving the smooth, bright-orange crust most associated with Nablus; mabrumeh is rolled round a filling of nuts. In Turkey, künefe from Hatay (Antakya) is made in small round copper pans with a stretchy unsalted cheese and served with pistachios and clotted cream. In Lebanon, kunafa in a sesame bun is a breakfast street food.

Most recently, kunafa pastry found new fame inside the so-called Dubai chocolate bar, where toasted shredded pastry and pistachio cream fill a chocolate shell — a modern idea built on a very old ingredient.

ii. Why the pastry is shredded, and why the cheese is soaked

Shredded pastry is the key to kunafa's texture. Each fine thread has a large surface area for its size, so when it is tossed with butter or ghee and baked, it fries into a crisp, golden crust far crunchier than a sheet of pastry could become. The tangle of threads also traps syrup between them, so the crust stays crisp at the edges and soaks up sweetness inside. For the fine Nablus na'meh style, the strands are broken into tiny pieces and rubbed with butter until they look like coarse orange sand, which packs into a smooth, even crust.

The cheese must melt and stretch without being salty. Nabulsi and akkawi are brined cheeses, so they are cut up and soaked in several changes of cold water for hours to remove salt. They are chosen because they melt into long, elastic threads but keep their shape and do not turn oily. Outside the Middle East, a mixture of desalted akkawi with fresh mozzarella, or mozzarella with a little ricotta, gives a similar stretch.

The colour is traditionally bright orange. In Nablus, the pastry is often tinted with a little food colouring, or with butter cooked to colour; some cooks use a pinch of turmeric or rely on long baking for colour.

The syrup follows the familiar rule: cool syrup on hot kunafa. Poured on as soon as the pastry is turned out, it soaks into the crisp crust while the cheese stays molten. Kunafa is a dish for eating straight away; as it cools, the cheese firms and loses its stretch.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 12 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 400 g sugar (syrup)
• 250 ml water (syrup)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp orange-blossom water
• 400 g akkawi or Nabulsi cheese
• 250 g fresh mozzarella, drained
• 450 g kunafa (kataifi) pastry, thawed
• 200 g ghee or clarified butter, melted
• ¼ tsp orange food colouring powder (optional)
• 30 g pistachios, finely chopped

Akkawi and Nabulsi cheese are sold in Middle Eastern shops, in brine or vacuum packs; desalt them well. Without them, use 650 g of fresh mozzarella mixed with 100 g ricotta, which needs no soaking. Kunafa or kataifi pastry is sold frozen; some shops also sell ready-ground na'meh kunafa. Ghee gives the crispest, most golden crust. The orange colour is traditional but optional.

iv. Method

1. Cut the akkawi or Nabulsi cheese into 1 cm slices and soak in cold water for 4–6 hours, changing the water every hour, until it tastes only mildly salty. Drain and pat dry.
2. Make the syrup: boil the sugar and water for 8 minutes, add the lemon juice, simmer 1 minute more, stir in the orange-blossom water and cool completely.
3. Grate or tear the soaked cheese and the mozzarella into small pieces and mix together.
4. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, 400°F). Pulse the pastry in a food processor (or chop with a knife) into short pieces, about 1 cm. Rub in the ghee and colouring with your hands until every strand is coated.
5. Brush a 30 cm round metal tray with ghee. Press two-thirds of the pastry firmly and evenly into the base and up the edge.
6. Spread the cheese evenly over the pastry, leaving a 1 cm border. Cover with the rest of the pastry and press down lightly.
7. Bake on the lowest shelf for 30–35 minutes until the base is deep golden-orange; lift an edge with a spatula to check.
8. Run a knife round the edge, place a large plate on top and invert. Pour the cold syrup over at once, scatter with pistachios, cut into squares and serve hot.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Desalt the cheese thoroughly. Under-soaked cheese makes the whole dessert salty; taste a piece before using it.
• Dry the cheese well. Wet cheese steams the pastry from inside and makes it soggy.
• Coat every strand in ghee. Unbuttered pastry bakes pale and papery instead of crisp.
• Bake on the lowest shelf. The base becomes the top; it needs direct heat to turn golden.
• Cold syrup on hot pastry. The contrast keeps the crust crisp as it soaks.
• Serve immediately. Kunafa is at its best in the first 15 minutes, when the cheese still stretches.

vi. Variations

Knafeh na'meh uses finely ground pastry for a smooth crust; knafeh khishneh keeps the strands long and crunchy. Künefe from Hatay is made in small individual pans with unsalted stretchy cheese. Kunafa with cream (bil ashta) replaces cheese with thickened cream, common in Egypt and the Gulf. Kunafa ka'ak stuffs hot cheese kunafa into a sesame bun for breakfast in Lebanon and Palestine. Modern versions use Nutella, mango or pistachio cream.

For the same pastry rolled with walnuts, see Greek kataifi; for other syrup pastries, try galaktoboureko and basbousa; and for a Levantine syrup-soaked bread pudding with cream, see aish el-saraya.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve kunafa hot, cut in squares, with extra syrup on the side for those who like it sweeter, and Arabic coffee or mint tea. It is a favourite after iftar in Ramadan, at Eid, at weddings and whenever there is good news to celebrate.

Kunafa is best fresh. Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to 2 days; reheat in a 180°C (160°C fan, 350°F) oven for 10–15 minutes until the cheese melts again. You can assemble it, unbaked, a few hours ahead and keep it chilled; or freeze the assembled tray for up to a month and bake from frozen, adding 10–15 minutes.

ix. More from Middle Eastern

• Kataifi — shredded-pastry nut rolls
• Basbousa — semolina syrup cake
• Umm Ali — Egyptian pastry pudding
• Aish el-Saraya — bread pudding with cream
• Maamoul — filled semolina cookies
• Galaktoboureko — custard filo pie