Walnut and Date Stuffed Katayef Recipe
Katayef is associated with the Holy month of Ramadan and Eid in the Middle East. Katayef is essentially an Arab style pancake using yeast as a raising agent. Katayef comes in many traditional forms such as stuffed with sweet nabulsi or akkawi cheese, stuffed with walnuts or stuffed with cream. It is then fried and drowned in Arab style orange blossom scented syrup. We love katayef in my household but we do not necessary enjoy the associated calorie count when prepared in the traditional style.
I have opted in this recipe for baking rather than deep frying, using dates with the walnuts rather than sugar and brushing the katayef with a simple syrup rather than drowning them in an Arab style syrup which is much denser and calorific.
My aim through this blog is to give our food heirlooms a face lift by making them lighter, healthier but still full of flavor and easy to prepare.
We are what we eat and in order to work towards living a healthy lifestyle we need to monitor our eating habits. When you prepare foods at home, only then do you know what you are eating. Get in the kitchen and try to make these scrummy beauties and let me know how easy it is.
Ingredients:
Yield: 18
Servings: 8
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup dates, chopped
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
Vegetable oil spray
1/3 cup Arabic style syrup
Method:
* Preheat oven to 180 C. fan setting.
* Place the chopped walnuts, dates and cinnamon in a glass bowl and mix well with your hand until the dates are covering all the walnuts.
* Hold the katayef disc in the palm of your hand and place around 2 tablespoons of the mix in the center as seen in the picture.
* Fold in half and pinch the sides firmly in order to seal it well.
* Repeat the process until all 18 are finished.
* Place on a wire cooling rack over a tray or a tray covered with baking paper if you don’t have the wire cooling rack and use a vegetable oil spray to coat the surface of the katayef then turn over and repeat the same to the other side.
* Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and remove then, using a brush, coat the surface of the katayef with the syrup then turn and repeat on the other side.
* Place on a serving platter and drizzle with date molasses. Serve hot.
Tips:
* Using a wire rack produces better results as it allows the hot air to circulate around and crisp up both sides.
* Katayef can keep for 1 day on the kitchen counter and 6 days in the fridge.
* You can use simple syrup for a less calorific dessert.
Per Serving: 293 Calories; 16g Fat (48.2% calories from fat); 7g Protein; 32g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; trace Sodium.