A new way to serve Katayef !!

I did not post before about Katayef, but I think that there is a lot of people who know it and of course tasted it before....

Qatayef (قطايف) or as we call it here in Egypt "Atayef " is an Arab dessert commonly reserved for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, a sort of sweet crepe filled with cheese or nuts.

Qatayef is the general name of the dessert as a whole, but more specifically, the batter. The result of the batter being poured into a round hot plate appears similar to pancakes, except only one side is cooked, then folded. The pastry is filled with either unsalted cheese or a mixture of any of hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, raisins, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. It is then deep-fried or, less commonly, baked and served with a hot sugar-water syrup or sometimes honey.

We always buy it ready and we stuffed and fried it at home....but making it at home is really excited because you will find that it is more tasty than the store bought one.

There is a nice recipe for making Atayef from scratch..it is really easy and simple.

Qatayef recipe

Ingredients
Dough:

1 Cup of flour

1 Cup of milk

1 tsp yeast

half tablespoon of sugar

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
Filling:

1 Cup of walnut

2 tbsp of granulated sugar

1 tbsp rose water

Syrup:

1 Cup of sugar

1 Cup of water

2 tbsp of lemon juice

1 tbsp of rose water
Method
Prepare the syrup first. Put all the ingredients in a small pan and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Put the pan on the hob at a high temperature and do not stir a lot.

What we need is a thick syrup not a runny syrup.

This will take around 10 minutes, leave aside to cool down.
Whisk the flour, milk and yeast together and leave aside for 2 hours.
When ready, use a big non-stick pan to cook the katayef.

Heat the pan first and then reduce temperature to minimum.
Sprinkle the bicarbonate soda to the runny dough and mix.
Take 2 big table spoons and pour in the pan in small circles to make a small size Katayef.

Fry the katayef on one side until golden, remove and leave to cool down.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling, put the walnuts in a blender, add sugar and rose water, blend until smooth.
Fill each katayef with one spoonful of walnuts and close the 2 sides together making a cone shape.
When ready to serve the katayef sprinkle one teaspoon of syrup, and some Orange blossoms and serve.
You can also deep fry the katayef if you wish and once out sprinkle with the syrup. But you should fold it and stick its sides very well because we do not want to lose our filling in the frying oil.

Here you are the pic for the traditional Katayef, and how it looks like the one we eat every day during Ramadan.

This month I served atayef a new way...I baked it and filled it with a cheese cake filling .

Here you are the recipe

10 Atayef units

Half cup of melted butter

1 and half cup of thick syrup

for the filling:-

3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature

1 cup / 210 g sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and blend until smooth and creamy.

I brushed the Atayef units and put each one in a cupcake pan.

I filled it with the cheese cake filling and baked it in a preheated oven 220C.

When the filling started to be light gold...I took the pan outside the oven and started to take out my baked qatayef. I let it for ten mn then soaked it in the thick syrup and let it cool completely I served it with whipped cream and fresh fruits....Serve it cold...it is much better....Enjoy !!