Künefe
Buttery shredded pastry around a layer of melting, stretchy cheese, baked golden and drenched in syrup. Eat it hot.
← Nouns Cooking · Lebanese & Turkish
Ingredients
- 200 g Sugar
- 200 ml Water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 250 g kataifi (kadayıf) pastry, thawed
- 100 g butter or ghee, melted
- 200 g low-moisture mozzarella or künefe cheese, grated or thinly sliced
- 30 g Pistachios, finely ground
Method
- Boil the sugar and water, stirring until dissolved, then add the lemon juice and simmer for 10 min until slightly syrupy. Leave to cool completely.
- Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, 400°F). Pull the kataifi apart into short strands, about 2 cm long, and rub them well with the melted butter.
- Press half the pastry firmly into a 23 cm round tin. Scatter the cheese over it, leaving a 1 cm border, then cover with the rest of the pastry and press down hard.
- Bake for 25–30 min until deep golden and crisp on top and at the edges.
- Pour the cool syrup evenly over the hot künefe as soon as it comes out; it will sizzle. Rest for 2 min, scatter with pistachios and serve at once while the cheese still stretches.
Tips
- Hot pastry, cool syrup: if both are hot, the künefe goes soggy.
- Contains pistachios, milk and gluten. If your cheese is salty, slice it and soak in cold water for an hour first.
Sources
Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:
Open Künefe in Nouns Cooking