Last Sunday was baking day. I made the famous baklava and shared with you the recipe. Today, I want to continue with famous Turkish / Ottoman dessert recipes. In this post, I would like to share with you how to make Kadaif.

What is Kadaif

Kadaif (Kadayif) is a Middle Eastern dessert prepared with kataifi, a spun pastry soaked in a sweet, sugar-based syrup and stacked ingredients like pistachios, or pecans, depending on the region. Variants are also found in Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans.

“In Turkish, the string pastry is known as tel kadayıf, and the cheese-based dessert that uses it as künefe. In the Balkans, the shredded dough is similarly known as kadaif, and in Greece as kataifi, and is the basis of various dishes rolled or layered with it, including dessert pastries with nuts and sweet syrups.“

Kadaif and Knafe

“In the Hatay region of Turkey, which was formerly part of Syria and has a large Arab population, the pastry is called künefe and the wiry shreds are called tel kadayıf. A semi-soft cheese such as Urfa peyniri (cheese of Urfa) or Hatay peyniri (cheese of Hatay), made of raw milk, is used in the filling. In making the künefe, the kadayıf is not rolled around the cheese; instead, cheese is put in between two layers of wiry kadayıf. It is cooked in small copper plates, and then served very hot in syrup with clotted cream (kaymak) and topped with pistachios or walnuts. In Turkish cuisine, there is also yassı kadayıf and ekmek kadayıfı, none of which is made of wiry shreds.”

Source

Where to Buy Kataifi Pastry

You can find Kataifi Pastry (Shredded Fillo (Phyllo) Dough Kataifi) in many Turkish and Middle Eastern grocery stores, or online. For this recipe, you only need 500 gr (17 ounces) kadaifi Pastry.