Kenafeh (Arabic: كنافة kanāfah), also spelled knafeh, kunafeh, or kunafah, is a Middle Eastern sweet made of very fine vermicelli-like pastry. It is sometimes known as shredded phyllo.
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Kenafeh, along with the closely related qata'if, is recorded in medieval Arab cookbooks from various regions.[1] It has also been a staple of the cuisines of the former Ottoman empire in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Kanafeh is made by drizzling a row of thin streams of flour-and-water batter onto a turning hot plate, so they dry into long threads resembling shredded wheat. The threads are then collected into skeins.[2]
The resulting "pastry" for kanafeh comes in three types:
That pastry is heated with some butter, margarine or palm oil for a while, and then spread with soft cheese (see Nabulsi cheese) and more pastry; or the khishnah kanafeh is rolled around the cheese. A thick syrup, consisting of sugar, water and a few drops of rose water, is poured on the pastry during the final minutes of cooking. Often the top layer of kadaif pastry is colored using orange food coloring. Crushed pistachios are typically sprinkled on top as a garnish.
In Egypt, the filling is mainly composed of either crushed nuts mixed with powdered sugar and cinnamon, or of sweetened cream cheese.
Among Palestinians, the city of Nablus is especially renowned for kanafeh.[3] The kanafeh of Nablus is filled with Nabulsi cheese and plays a central role in Palestinian cuisine.
Many variants of kanafeh have names resembling the word "qatayef", but a qatayef is a quite distinct, dumpling-like confection. Qatayef and variants of kanafeh are often found in the same areas, and are made of the same basic ingredients (one of which is the batter, which in some areas is called "qatayef"!). So it is easy to confuse many of the terms. Still, kadaif, and kadayıf, kataifi, etc., are not qatayef, but are always just different names for variants of kanafeh.
This variant is popular across the Levant and Turkey, where it can be eaten for breakfast or even for dinner as a main meal; but it is primarily considered a dessert. Eaten as a layered treat or helwah, it may also be placed in a special bread and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It is traditionally served alongside, or drenched in, a thick, sugar-based, honey-based, or glucose-based syrup called qattar or attar.
The Turkish variant of the pastry kanafeh is called künefe, and the bunch of wirey shreds that it is based on is called kadayıf. A semi-soft cheese such as mozzarella is used in the filling.[4] In making the künefe, the kadayıf is not rolled around the cheese; instead, cheese is put in between two layers of wire kadayıf. This is cooked in small copper plates, and then served very hot, in syrup, with clotted cream (kaymak), and pistachios or walnuts. (Compare with kadaif.)
In this variant, called also καταϊφι or κανταϊφι in Greek (kataïfi or kadaïfi), the threads are used to make pastries of various forms (tubes or nests), often with a filling of chopped nuts, like that used for baklava.
A kadaif pastry is made by putting down a layer of wire kadaif, then a layer of a filling of chopped nuts, then another layer of wire kadaif. The pastries are painted with melted butter, baked until golden brown, then drenched in sugar or honey syrup. (Compare with künefe.)
Kadaif noodles are sometimes used, in fusion cuisine, to make savory pastries.[5]
The largest plate of kanafeh was made in Nablus.[6] in an attempt to get a Palestinian record in the Guinness World Records. It measured 75x2 meters and weighed 1,350 kilograms.