Blanche Shaheen’s Knafeh

Blanche Shaheen: My Favorite Dessert of All Time – Knafeh

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“Ask anyone from Arab countries what their favorite dessert is, and without hesitation they will most likely respond: ‘Knafeh,’” says Blanche Shaheen at her acclaimed Arab food blog, Feast in the Middle East, where she features cuisine from all of the Levant and beyond.

“This iconic dessert, spelled a myriad of ways, from kanafeh to knafe to kanafeh, is undoubtedly the most popular dessert among Arabs the world over. This layered confection consists of shredded phyllo dough called ‘kataife’ doused with ghee or melted butter, covering a layer of gooey sweet and melted cheese. The whole pastry is then doused with a sweet syrup accented with lemon, or even rose water depending on preference. Chopped pistachios crown the top with extra crunch and contrasting color. Eaten together, the rich layers are sweet, creamy, buttery, and crunchy.”

“The dough is usually dyed a bright orange, so most people can spot the massive disks of melted buttery goodness in bakeries from a block away. While there are several theories on the origins of this legendary dessert, most historical roads lead to the town of Nablus in Palestine. The knafeh bakers from Nablus are renowned, often passing on family recipes handed down to them from hundreds of years ago. Nablus certainly is the most plausible area of origin, as the town is famous for their Nabulsi cheese. This cheese is made fresh from goats roaming the picturesque olive tree studded hills, making the ultimate foundation for knafeh. To solidify their place in world history, 170 Nabulsi bakers got together in 2009 to make the largest knafeh in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record. The pastry covered the city like an orange carpet spanning 75 meters wide and weighing in at 1550 kilograms.”

“While knafeh was a well-kept secret in Arab countries and Turkey, recently the secret has leaked out into the American mainstream, with the arrival of this dessert at Trader Joes. While the uninitiated might welcome this novel and niche dessert in a conventional supermarket, this frozen version does not even come close to the ones made at home or found in bakeries. For many, visiting Nablus to eat the authentic dessert is not practical, but with just a few ingredients you can make a superior version of knafeh in your own home. Many Middle Eastern markets sell everything you need, from the dough and the cheese to the orange dye and ghee.”

Blanche Shaheen, Host of Feast in the Middle East

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds Akawi sweet cheese or farmer’s cheese (Mexican Queso Blanco)

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1  pound thawed, shredded phyllo dough

1 1/2 cups ghee (or melted butter)

1/4 teaspoon knafeh orange coloring (Blanche likes the Ziyad brand)

1/2 cup ground pistachios

Sugar Syrup (Attar):

2 cups water

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

A few drops of rose water (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. If using salted farmer’s cheese, place the cheese in a bowl of water and let soak overnight. This will extract the salt, resulting in a sweet cheese. Drain the cheese, and pat dry with paper towels. If using Akawi cheese you can skip this step. Place the cheese in a food processor and process until cottage cheese consistency is achieved. Set aside.

Chop the phyllo dough into slices, then shred with your fingers. Put the dough in a large round pizza pan on low heat on a stovetop burner, and add the ghee and orange coloring. Work with your hands (preferably gloved) to incorporate the ghee with the dough. Remove 1/3 of the dough and set aside in another bowl. Spread the remaining 2/3 dough evenly in the pizza pan, and press down firmly as you will invert the knafeh and you want this layer to hold together. Spread the cheese over the dough evenly.

Top with the remaining shredded phyllo and pat down evenly as well. Cover with foil and bake on the lower rack for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake another 15 minutes.

In the meantime, make the attar recipe or sugar syrup. Add 2 cups water and 1 cup sugar to a saucepan, and boil. Then reduce the heat to a simmer, and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and optional rose water. Set the syrup aside. Remove the knafeh from oven, and invert upside down using another pizza pan. Drizzle with syrup to taste.

Any remaining sugar syrup can be served on the side for guests to add more if they wish. Sprinkle ground pistachios over the knafeh and serve immediately.

For this recipe, go to:

https://feastinthemiddleeast.com/2021/11/04/my-favorite-dessert-of-all-time-knafeh/

If you have a product you think would be a good fit for the thousands of viewers of Feast in the Middle East, please feel free to email Blanche at fitmeinfo@protonmail.com for  information.

She works with many brands she is passionate about, and companies she’s worked with in the past include: Ziyad, Cortas, Ridha Naturals, Harvest Peace Olive Oil, Levant Blends Coffee, Sadaf, Sea of Herbs, Antler Farms, Ambrosiac Salep, MVMT, Draeger’s Markets, Thrive Market, Keto Box and Wilton Armetale.

You can check out her cooking video tutorials and cultural commentary on growing up Arab American at: https://www.youtube.com/user/blanchetv. Her recipes can also be found at https://feastinthemiddleeast.wordpress.com/. She has been featured on NBC’s “California Live,” BBC World News, KQED’s “Check Please” program, NPR radio, the Palo Alto Weekly, the Los Altos Crier, the Mountain View Voice, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Rumi Awards show she hosted for an international audience.

Growing up in an Arab American household, rich traditional Arabic dishes were central to Blanche’s family’s life. However she noticed that previous generations of her family did not document these heirloom recipes on paper, but passed the cooking techniques only by word of mouth. So Blanche began a mission of cultural preservation, taking down the cooking methods and exact ingredients of these hundreds of year old recipes. She launched a popular YouTube cooking show called “Feast in the Middle East” to not only share these recipes with her family, but with the world.

Some of these dishes are classical favorites, like smoky Syrian Muhammara dip with walnuts, pomegranate molasses and roasted peppers, “Warak Enab,” or rice and lamb rolled into tender grape leaves and cooked in a tomato broth, or Lebanese semolina custard scented with rose water called “Layali Lubnan” or “Lebanese Nights.” Other dishes, like Musakhan, come from small and obscure villages like Ein Erik in the Palestinian West Bank. Musakhan is a sumac spiced chicken roasted on bread and smothered with caramelized onions and toasted pine nuts. Ancient recipes like chewy semolina date ring cookies called Ma’moul commemorate both Easter and Ramadan, while an over 1000- year-old cinnamon spiced bulgur wheat porridge called Burbarra celebrates the Feast of Santa Barbara in the Arab Levant, Malta, and even Eastern Europe.

While many of these dishes used to take hours to make, Blanche modernized these recipes to adapt to today’s western palate and busy lifestyles.

Readers will be able to recreate street foods like Chicken Shawarma and crispy Falafel in their own kitchens using easy techniques and familiar ingredients. Fusion dishes like Baklava Granola with pistachios and cardamom, Middle Eastern Nachos or “Machos” with pita chips and cucumber yogurt sauce, and a Lemon Cheesecake made with creamy labneh cheese adapt middle eastern spices and ingredients to western tastes. Today the “Feast in the Middle East” YouTube series has brought together a global cooking community in an unexpected and beautiful way. Now viewers are making these recipes in the United States, Canada, India, Australia, Spain, Korea and beyond.

ORDER: Feast In The Middle East – A Personal Journey of Family and Cuisine by Blanche Araj Shaheen, go to: https://secure.mybookorders.com/mbo_index.php?isbn=9781545675113

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/FeastinTheMiddleEast/?ref=hl

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/blanchemedia/?hl=en

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/blanchemedia?lang=en

Blog:  https://feastinthemiddleeast.com/

Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/FeastInTheMiddleEast/blanches-feast-in-the-middle-east/

For Blanche’s YouTube videos, go to:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7ghcBe7PIrF6nh7xndiIzg

For A Review of Trader Joe’s Kunefe, go to:

https://feastinthemiddleeast.com/2019/06/25/a-review-of-trader-joes-kunefe/

To see a tutorial of how Blanche and her beloved mother make authentic knafeh at home, watch at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5X_tYAJFSo&t=8s

To see Blanche’s video on her visit to historic Nablus, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhQidVe5I58
Copyright © 2023 Feast in the Middle East – All Rights Reserved.

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