🍮 Kunafa with ashta cream
Kunafa with ashta is a Levantine dessert of shredded kataifi pastry tossed in ghee and baked over a thick layer of ashta, a clotted-style milk cream. When it comes out of the oven golden and crisp, it is soaked in sugar syrup scented with orange blossom and topped with ground pistachios. It is served warm, cut into squares.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g kataifi (shredded kunafa pastry)
- 100 g ghee, melted
- 400 g ashta cream
- 200 ml sugar syrup (sugar and water)
- 1 tsp orange blossom water
- 30 g pistachios, ground
Method
- Heat the oven to 190 °C. Pull the kataifi apart into short strands and rub them with the ghee.
- Press half into a round baking tin, spread the ashta evenly on top and cover with the remaining kataifi, pressing gently.
- Bake for 35–40 minutes until deep golden.
- Flavour the syrup with orange blossom water and pour it over the hot kunafa. Sprinkle with pistachios and serve warm.
How to make it lighter
- Brush the kataifi with half the ghee — it still browns well.
- Pour on only half the syrup and serve the rest on the side.
- Cut small squares; a 100 g piece is a satisfying portion.
History
Kunafa is an old Arab sweet with roots in the medieval cooking of the Levant and Egypt, and ashta filling is one of its classic variations alongside cheese. Today cream kunafa is a favourite in sweet shops from Lebanon and Syria to the Gulf, especially during Ramadan.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →