culinarybackstreets

An iconic Middle Eastern dessert, knefeh is to Lebanon what waffles are to Belgium. There are no records of its origins, but according to local legend the cheese-filled pastry comes from the Palestinian town of Nablus, and now it exists in different variations around the region, including in Lebanon. (In Turkey, it is known as künefe.)

When you walk into any local confectionery, you will find trays of Arab pastries, but the one with the fresh-baked, rich copper-brown cake steals the spotlight. Knefeh consists of a soft cheese baked in a semolina crust, topped with pistachios and doused with orange blossom syrup. While usually enjoyed for dessert, the cake also has a place at the Lebanese breakfast table, especially when it is sandwiched between the sesame seed bread known as kaak. It’s the kind of breakfast that you can take straight through dinner

 

 Nearly everyone in Lebanon has their own favorite patisserie where they get this sugary breakfast staple. In recent years some patisseries have even begun to experiment with this traditional favorite, even serving knefeh with chocolate inside a croissant. For the purists though, a knefeh should be sweet and not too rich or heavy, but unfortunately, more and more sweet shops are using poorly processed cheese, making the knefeh tasteless and overwhelmingly heavy on the stomach. – See more at: http://www.culinarybackstreets.com/elsewhere/beirut/2015/breakfast-in-beirut-part-2/#sthash.EEDcT3bj.dpuf

– See more at: http://www.culinarybackstreets.com/elsewhere/beirut/2015/breakfast-in-beirut-part-2/#sthash.EEDcT3bj.dpuf