I am a bit in to the Ramadan cooking spirit these days, I am getting off work a couple of hours earlier than usual, which is giving me time to prepare different meals and desserts regularly. I usually buy ready made “Katayef” dough and make my own fat-free cream filling and sugar syrup at home. Today I was too lazy to go get them from Sultan Supermarket /TSC so I decided I’ll prepare the batter at home.
This type of Lebanese sweet is of three parts, the pancakes, the filling, and the sugar syrup. To save time I usually prepare the syrup and filling a night ahead, but that’s not really necessary.
Ok prepare your shopping list, this is what you will be needing for each phase with instructions on how to prepare them.
A- For the mini pancakes (batter)
2 cups flour
1 TBS baking powder
2 small tsp fast acting yeast
1 TBS sugar
1 TBS fat free powder milk
1 3/4 cups warm water
Mix the flour, baking powder, yeast, sugar, and milk, then slowly add the warm water, leave the batter 15-30 min to rest. Heat a small non-stick skillet and use cooking spray (or a little bit of oil). Take out Tablespoonfuls of batter to form small pancakes, cook from one side only, you will see bubbles form on the top, DON’T FLIP THEM, they should remain uncooked from the other side. just when the top dries up, remove them. Stack them on a plate and work on the filling and syrup.
B- For the filling (Kashta)
6 pieces of white toast (cut off the brown edges)
2 cups fat free milk
1 tsp vanilla
This filling is usually the worst part of any Lebanese dessert and the most fattening, but with this recipe you will see how light and guilt free it is. Cut the white bread into small squares , put them in a pot, pour over the milk and the vanilla, mix them till they form a consistent texture. Put aside.
C- For the sugar syrup
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 TBS lemon
1 TBS orange blossom water (Ma zaher)
Mix the sugar and water , heat till they boil , add the lemon, boil again, add the orange blossom water and boil a final time till the syrup is clear. Leave aside till it cools.
Assembly:
hold one pancake in your hand, stick the two sides together leaving the top part open, fill in a tsp or more of the filling. Make as many as you want for each person then drizzle the sugar syrup and serve. If you don’t plan to serve them all, keep all items separate and only prepare them before serving.
Try it and you won’t regret it,
Enjoy!!!