My Favorite Recipes Collection: Homemade Knafeh (Kunafa) with Cashew Cheese Filling Served with Homemade Pistachio Ice Cream without Eggs

In 2023 we went on Danube River Cruise with Gate1 tour and as usual we arrived 2 days earlier than our tour started. Our first day there on May 14, 2023 we went on Big Red Bus and took city tour of Vienna, then on second day we took 4 hours train trip to small skiing town Simmering and came back to Vienna, by afternoon train. First we explored the Vienna city by taxi and by Big Red bus and went to Vienna Naschmarkt food market, which is the most popular market in Austria and Vienna. It is by far the most famous and the most luxurious food and produce market. Nowhere else in the city, nor probably in anywhere else in Austria, will you find such a wide range of things to see, to eat, to drink and to enjoy as at the Naschmarkt. Since the 16th century people in Austria has come to the Naschmarkt get to enjoy the many different products which would be brought here by vendors of the city farmers from the outside of the city, and those that came from overseas by boats and ships from different parts of the world that were once connected to the Austrian empire. We ate there at an Israeli Restaurant called Neni. Food was very delicious and the Dessert "Knafeh" was out of this world, this warm dessert served with ice cream which was like Tart yogurt of Lemon berry and Pinkberry yogurt place in USA, sprinkled with generous amounts of pistachios.

Knefeh is a traditional Arabic dessert made with (spun pastry dought) layered to white cheese and soaked with in a sweet sugar based syrup called Attar. Knafeh is a popular throughout the Arab world, Knafeh is a popular throughout the Arab world, especially in the the Levant and is often served on special occasions and holidays, The most common variant of Knafeh in Jordan and Palestine Knafeh Nabulseyeh, originated in Palestinian city of Nabulus. The English language borrows the word "Knefeh" from Levantine and Egyptian Arabic and widely transliterates as kanafeh, kenafeh, knafeh, kunafah, kunafeh, konafa, knéfé, kunafa, and similar variations. The above picture on left is from the restaurant and since than I wanted to make this at home. I even bought this from local middle eastern store for a Henna party for our son and his fiancé and served with ice cream in Oct 2024, However it was not the same, so I finally decided to make it when our son and our dear daughter in law came to visit us first time after they got married. Instead of making tart yogurt (recipe on this blog) here is the link: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7834663279929806818/5520061464915746884) This time I made pistachio ice cream at home, but I still want to serve this with homemade tart yogurt one day. It tasted so good when we had it in Vienna.

Also Instead of using white sweet cheese from Middle eastern store, or using Mozzarella cheese, or Ricotta cheese for filling that lot of recipes call for, I used cheese made out of Cashew and Tapioca flour. You can make the cream filling with whole milk, Heavy cream and corn flour. I will let you know how but I made the sweet cheese filling with cashew and tapioca flour. So here it is my homemade recipe for the Knafeh followed by my recipe of homemade Pistachio Ice cream. You have to make the syrup and cream filling first and then put everything together.

Ingredients for Knafeh Dough:

* 1 lb Kataifi Shredded phyllo dough

* 1 cup butter or Ghee

Ingredients for Orange Blossom Syrup:

* 1 cup water

* 2 cups of coconut brown sugar or regular brown sugar (can use regular sugar but brown sugar gives nice brown caramel color)

* 2 teaspoon lemon juice ( I used lime juice)

* 1 tablespoon orange blossom water

Ingredients for Sweet Cheese filling:

* 1 and 1/2 cup of unsalted unroasted cashew soaked for at least 2 hours.

* 5 cups of warm water

* 3/4 cup of tapioca starch

* 1.5 tablespoon butter or Ghee

* 1.5 tablespoon of lemon or lime juice (I used lime)

* 1.5 teaspoon salt

Remember I made the sweet cheese filling with cashews and ingredients above. The method for that is later part of this post.
If you are making sweet cheese filling with milk, heavy cream and corn starch instead You will need following ingredients:

* 4 cups whole milk

* 2 cups heavy cream

* 10 tablespoon corn starch

* 8 tablespoon sugar

* 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

* If you are making the sweet cream with whole milk and cream here is how you make it:

* Add sugar, corn flour, heavy cream and milk in a large saucepan, stir well to combine (make sure there are no lumps)

* Constantly whisk the mixture over medium heat for 2-3 min until it comes to a boil.

* Keep whisking the mixture until it thickens.

* Add vanilla extract and stir and turn off the heat.

* Allow the cream to cool.

I loved the sweet cheese filling that I made with cashew and tapioca flour.

Since it does not have any milk base it can be good for lactose intolerant people and you can make a vegan version by replacing Butter/Ghee with Olive oil in the entire recipe.

How to prepare first layer of Kataifi:

* Preheat oven at 350 F

* Chop or cut the Kataife strands until dough is shredded into small, separate strands instead of lumped together.

* Melt the butter/ghee in microwave or over sauce pan and place the shredded dough in a large bowl.

* Pour the melted butter or ghee over the dough and mix together until the dough is completely coated with butter or ghee. It is better to use your hands to do this.

* Divide the dough in two equal half.

* Spray the vegetable oil on 10-12" round baking dish, place a round cut parchment paper on it and grease it again with veg oil spray.

* Place one half of the dough on parchment paper and press with hands or back of bowl to pack it down. Keep the other half of dough covered so it does not dry up.

* Bake it in oven for 20-25 min until light brown.

* Remove the first layer of Knafeh from oven and let it cool.

* You can keep the oven heated at 350 F if you like as you will be baking the entire Knafeh again with cheese in it or you can turn it off as the sweet cheese from cashew take a little long time to make.

While the first layer of Knafeh is baking you can prepare orange blossom syrup as follows:

* Combine brown sugar and water in a saucepan.

* Heat it over medium-high heat stirring constantly.

* Bring it to boil.

* Once it boils, add lemon or lime juice and simmer for 5 more minutes.

* Remove from heat and stir in orange blossom water.

* Set the syrup aside.

Method to make Sweet Cheese filling from Cashew:

* Drain the cashew from water and place them in a food processor.

* Add tapioca flour, ghee or butter, salt, lemon or lime juice and some of the water.

* Grind everything to smooth paste.

* Transfer the paste to a non stick deep saucepan and add remaining water, place it over the stove.

* Turn the heat on to medium-low heat.

* Stir constantly with wooden spoon.

* After 30 min the mixture will begin to recede from pan.

* While this is going on you can preheat the oven to 350 F again.

* Keep stirring over medium-low heat until the mixture becomes even stretchy and melted cheese like consistency.

* Once it is receding from pan and consistency is thick paste like, you can pour it over the first baked layer of Knafeh in baking pan.

* Spread it evenly and then wait about 5 min till the cheese begin to cool.

* Then sprinkle the second unbaked half of dough evenly on top.

* Press it down softly to even out the thickness.

* Leave it out again for about 5 min before putting in the oven.

* Then bake it for about 45 min until the top layer or of the dough is visibly brown.

* Remove the Knafeh from oven, let it cool for few minutes before flipping it in to another baking dish.

* Before flpping it loosen the edges from side of the dish with knife, cover the top of dish with with large baking dish or serving tray.

* Once flipped remove the parchment paper.

* Top the Knafeh with crushed pistachio and pour the 1/4 -1/3 of the warm Orange Blossom Syrup evenly over the dessert (depending on how sweet you want it).

* Slice and Serve immediately while still hot with your choice of ice cream.

If you prefer you can bake them in small baking dishes for individual servings like the one picture on top, the way restaurant served us. It is however a lot of work so for big get together this recipe yields about 12 slices of servings, which you can easily top with more syrup if you desire, more pistachios and you choice of ice cream.