Greek Kataifi Recipe
Kataifi is a Greek baked dessert made with buttered dough, filled with nuts and spices, and then soaked in syrup. The dough starts as a thin batter, which is shaped into fine strands before being baked. Once cooked, the pastry resembles vermicelli.
Ingredients
Kataifi Dough
- All-purpose flour – 1 2/3 cups
- Cornstarch – 1 cup
- Salt – ¾ teaspoon
- Vegetable oil – 2 Tbsp
- Water – 2 cups
Syrup
- Sugar – 450 g
- Water – 330 g
- Whole lemon peel – 1
- Cinnamon stick – 1
Filling
- Walnuts, whole – 250g
- Cinnamon, ground – 1 tsp
- Clove, ground – 1 pinch
- Pure butter – 250g
Instructions
Kataifi Dough
- Whisk flour, cornstarch, and salt in a medium-sized bowl.
- Add oil and water and whisk until smooth.
- Strain the batter through a sieve to make sure it is lump-free.
- Pour the batter into a squeeze bottle with a very small hole cut into the top.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat until it's very hot.
- Gently squeeze the bottle to dispense a very thin stream of batter in a circular motion, starting from the center of the pan and working towards the edge of the pan.
- When the pastry begins to peel off of the pan in 5 to 10 seconds, gently pick it up with a spatula and drop it into a bowl. Cover the bowl with a dishtowel and continue this process until all the batter is used up.
- Shred the strands into smaller sections. Use 16 oz for this recipe
Syrup
- 1. Add all the ingredients for the syrup into a small pot and bring to the boil.
- As soon as the sugar has dissolved, the syrup is ready. Let itcool completely.
Filling
- In a blender add the walnuts, ground clove and cinnamon; pulse until the walnuts are roughly chopped (not powdered).
- Melt the butter and with a cooking brush butter the bottom and sides of a 12 x 10 baking pan.
- Work the dough with your hands, tearing apart the shreds and gently spreading the strands out a bit if they clump together, in order to get fluffy. Cover the Kataifi dough with a slightly damp towel.
- Take one piece of the kataifi dough, and spread it on a working surface
- Drizzle with meltedbutter and place 1 teaspoon of the filling at one end.
- Roll it up tightly, folding the sides inwards to form a small cylinder.
- Place the kataifi roll in the pan and brush the top with melted butter and shaping it slightly. Repeat with the rest of the kataifi dough and filling.
- Place the kataifi rolls next to each other, leaving no gaps between them and drizzle with a little bit more butter
- Bake at 350 F for about 1 hour (on the middle rack), until golden and crispy.
- 10. Once the is kataifi out of the oven, slowly ladle 3/4 of the cold syrup over the hot kataifi.
- Cover the pan with a towel and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Ladle the rest of the syrup over the kataifi and wait until it absorbs
Nutrition
Calories: 834kcalCarbohydrates: 96gProtein: 8gFat: 49gSaturated Fat: 18gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 406mgFiber: 3gSugar: 57g
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