Walnut Katayef from Scratch

Katayef and boiled wheat are the staples of St Barbara Day in Lebanon. I have written a post about the tradition already, but this time the difference is I am not in Lebanon anymore and I am trying to share this staple with Clint and the kids.

So I did my research and found a recipe for Katayef from scratch (as you can imagine they are not readily found in pastry shops in California as they would be found in Lebanon). I made them a day later than the actual St Barbara which falls on December 4th, but hey it is the thought that counts!

Knefeh Katastrophe!

The disaster that was my attempt at Knefeh….

Knefeh Surprise

Last Thursday, my nephews’ and niece’s Easter vacation started. Marc my sister’s second, decided he wanted to stay at Grandma’s till Saturday, when his family will come to pick him up and take him home.

Marc, I noticed, has taken quite an interest in cooking along the last couple of years. Whenever I am in the kitchen, he rushes in saying:”A vos ordres, Chef!”  (At your orders, Chef!). Marc also is a huge Knefeh fan. So it seemed like a great Saturday morning activity with him, to surprise his family.

A Knefeh Dessert Experience

Last weekend was the perfect opportunity for me to make the knefeh for the challenge. I wanted my family to try it since it is not something that one finds on the average menu here in the USA. So after the kids finished school for the week and the rain set in a bit, I decided I would prepare this for all the house’s cooped up occupants.

Challenge 13: Knefeh

Anyone visiting Lebanon, learns it is a must to try Knefeh: A sort of a cheese (or cream) pie, served in a special kind of bread with syrup.

Knefeh is usually eaten for breakfast, where pastry shops offer it hot on big trays from which they serve their customers.

Knefeh has another variation, made with ashta or clotted cream.

Also, this kind of sweets is pretty easy to make and people have had several versions they make at home. Today I am posting as a challenge Knefeh from scratch; even the dough of it (called Mafroukeh), that represents the crunchy part.

Peach Compote Triathlon

The Lebanese villagers, in the old days, had the transportation means pretty rudimentary. The mountainous landscape and narrow road made it an extreme sport to get through the snow to get to another place to get supplies.

Most of the villages counted on the ambulant salesmen or “mkary” as they call them locally, to get all kinds of goods. Those traveled on donkey back and were the adventurous people who faced the odds, whether related to climate or to politics. They actually played a great part in smuggling provisions to the villagers, under the Ottoman Empire and during the World War I.