Sweets and desserts
Künefe
Hatay's hot dessert of unsalted string cheese baked between layers of shredded pastry and soaked in syrup.
Künefe is a Turkish dessert from Hatay, the province around Antakya near the Syrian border. Fine shreds of pastry called tel kadayıf are pressed into a small round copper pan with an unsalted, stretchy fresh cheese in the middle, cooked until crisp and golden on both sides, then drenched in sugar syrup and scattered with pistachio. It is eaten very hot.
What goes in
- Unsalted künefe cheese531%, Fresh and stretchy.
- Tel kadayıf531%, Shredded pastry.
- Butter213%, Clarified, generous.
- Sugar syrup319%, With lemon.
- Pistachio16%, Ground, to finish.
Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.
Made step by step
Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.
Step 1: Simmer Make a sugar syrup with lemon and let it cool. Step 2: Knead Pull apart the shredded pastry and rub it with melted butter. Step 3: Layer Press half into a small buttered pan, add a layer of sliced cheese and cover with the rest. Step 4: Bake Cook over a flame until the base is crisp and golden, then flip and cook the other side. Step 5: Layer Pour cold syrup over the hot künefe. Step 6: Serve Sprinkle with pistachio and serve immediately. Finished Künefe, by share.
Hatay and the Levant
Künefe belongs to the family of knafeh desserts made across the Levant, and Antakya has long been a crossroads of Turkish and Arab cooking. Hatay künefe has a protected geographical indication in Turkey. Each portion is cooked to order over a flame or charcoal, in a small pan, and turned once so both sides crisp. Shops across Turkey now sell it.
The cheese
The cheese, known as künefe cheese, is a fresh, unsalted or lightly salted cheese that stretches into strings when hot. In Hatay it is made locally for the purpose. Outside the region, cooks use other mild melting cheeses, sometimes desalted. The contrast of hot, stretchy cheese, crisp buttery pastry and cool syrup is the point of the dish.
Where it is used
The cheeses in it
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Sources and further reading
Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.