[ChefCrash]

For years I've been trying to make this Lebanese (Arabic) breakfast/dessert street food.
Yesterday we made a new version. I can say that we're almost there if not there.

From left to right: A kind of Lebanese cheese, sold around here as "Best Spanish" cheese, soaking in water to rid it of any salt. The dough spread in a buttered pan. In the pan on the stove is simple syrup.


After baking @ 450 F for 22 minutes, it was covered with two layers of the cheese.


It was put back in the oven to melt the cheese then was removed and turned upside down onto a different pan.


Drizzled syrup all over.


Served warm with more syrup.


Syrup:

1 c sugar
1/2 c water
1 tsp blossom water

Dough:

500 g Semolina
50 g Cream of wheat
125 g butter
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c milk
1 T rose water
1 T blossom water

[Verjuice]

My absolute favorite dessert.

So, what was missing from this version, if anything? It looks spectacular.

I love both versions, but marginally prefer the shredded filo crust (homemade, not the neon orange stuff) to the semolina version for reasons of texture and crunch. Since the gooey cheese and warm syrup soften everything, I feel like the toasty crisp of the filo brings it all together.

As much as I adore semolina, I'd rather get my fix of it by eating basbousa and nammoura alongside my k'nafeh. My second favorite dessert...

That last photo is killing me. In fact, I am in Beirut right now and just realized that I've only had it once in the last two weeks. Must rectify that pattern within the next two weeks. It's always time for k'nafeh!

[Nicolai]

Very nice ChefCrash.

Of course you would use Akawi cheese for the genuine McCoy although they have started experimenting with different cheeses now as well as Ashta. But the original is still the best.

You could sandwich the cheese with a thin dough layer and make sure to very lightly toast the semolina on dry heat before mixing the dough.

Again, pour the sugar syrup when still hot out of the oven. And you can easily cut the Knafeh before dousing with syrup and place in shrink film and freeze. It works like magic.

As for Verjuice, I hope you having a good time and easy on the sweets and the Casper & Gambini stuff.

For the Knafeh, try breakfast at the Marriott or Hallab in the middle of Raucheh with the water gargoyles and marble top tables. And the ubiquitous Samadi, not the one next to Saroulla but the one down from the Bristol towards Hamra.

As a matter of fact, try their Mafroukeh (Hallab) or come to think of it, try everything!

I will be waiting for you at the airport with the Coronary kit.

[Verjuice]

Your k’nafeh gave me a very specific craving but I ended up at Canelle, which is an excellent pastry shop albeit not for Lebanese pastry, for a twice-baked almond croissant. It was good but it wasn’t k’nafeh.

At Samadi Sweets in Abu Dhabi, I sometimes treat myself to a semolina k’nafeh sandwiched into a soft, fresh kaek, syrup poured liberally inside… one can really only manage a couple of bites of this hulking, toothaching ambrosia before throwing in the towel, but it is food-on-the-go at its most magnificent. Also, my parents, who are very light eaters, have been eating a sort of modified version of k’nafeh for years, people go nuts over it… they like it because although it’s not necessarily lighter in calories (you end up eating more of it than of the traditional), it’s much lighter on the digestive tract, which makes it easier to sleep at night. I adore it but I definitely don’t consider it k’nafeh per se. First, they bake a very thin buttered layer of the shredded filo, so sheer it’s translucent, like lace… then, ricotta cheese in place of akawi is placed on top, also a very thin layer, maybe 1/8th of an inch or so. After that gets baked to a golden toasty brown, it’s inverted and the orange flower syrup is passed around in a small pitcher. They make it in a 12” round cake pan, and cut the slices into wide, thin, crisp wedges. It’s very buttery and extremely addictive.

Patrick in the dessert forum made this vanilla pastry cream-filled version of baklava a couple of months ago. It looks delicious, like tender milles feuilles. Might give it a whirl one of these days.

[FoodMan]

looks outstanding Chef Crash! I never managed to perfect mine to be as good as yours looks, especially the crust. I'll have to give it a try now.

In Tripoli and everywhere I've been in Beirut, the shredded phylo one is not called Kenafi, but Basma. Also, and this is sort of an inside joke in Tripoli, how do you know if someone is from Beirut Vs. the North (ie north of Tripoli)? You ask if they want Kenafi with cheese (bil Jibin) or with clotted cream (bil Ashta). The Beirutis will always pick the cheese one, the Northerners will pick the Ashta. Needless to say Ashta is my favorite, but I'll take the cheese version in kaak anytime.

[piazzola]

Looks great
If Spanish cheese then is it requeson which is similar to ricotta?
thanks