Classic Qatayef with Walnuts

It's the holy month of Ramadan for my fellow Muslims, so you know what that means? Qatayef! These delicious desserts are basically mini folded up pancakes with different fillings. Many Arab countries have their own way of making these crescent-shaped desserts, so I'm going to show you how I've grown up to enjoy them, Syrian style.

My favorite kind of filling is with walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. It's such a delicacy and when it's topped with rose water syrup, you're going to want to have 10 of them.

They look like they're difficult to make, but the process is truly a breeze. The authentic way to make the qatayef flour is with several ingredients like baking soda, baking powder, semolina, etc. However, I wanted to make these qatayef accessible to the average person (like myself, the #averagearabgirl) so I used all-ready pancake mix by Bisquick. This way you need only 5 total ingredients to make the qatayef batter. So, let's get to the recipe shall we?

Yields: 30 qatayef

Prep time: 35 minutes

Total time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

This recipe is vegetarian.

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Ingredients:

1. 1 ½ cups of pancake mix

2. 1 cup of all-purpose flour

3. TBSP yeast

4. 2 ½ cups of warm water

5. ¼ TSP vanilla

For the filling:

1. 2 cups of walnuts, mildly crushed

2. 2 TBSPS brown sugar

3. 1 TSP cinnamon

4. 1 TSP nutmeg

For the syrup:

1. 1 cup of white sugar

2. 1 cup of water

3. Squeeze of lemon

4. ½ TSP rose water

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Instructions:

1. First, add the first five ingredients into a blender and blend them well.

2. Let that mixture sit outside to cool for 30 minutes.

3. As it's cooling, grab the walnuts and crush them slightly with a muddler.

4. Add the crushed walnuts into a bowl and add in the 2 TBSPS of brown sugar, 1 TSP of cinnamon, and 1 TSP of nutmeg. Mix well.

5. Now for the syrup: grab a small saucepan, and add in 1 cup of white sugar, 1 cup of water, 1/2 TSP of rose water, and ½ squeeze of a lemon. Avoid stirring. If the sugar is not dissolving well, stir a bit. Once it comes to a boil, stop stirring.

6. Reduce the heat to medium heat and let the syrup simmer for 10 minutes. Once it has thickened, put the syrup in a bowl and allow it to cool in the fridge. It should be a syrup-y consistency, not candy-like.

7. Now, have your griddle plugged in and allow it to heat up for 5-10 minutes. Spray on baking spray, and once it heats up, wipe it off gently to leave a bit of grease.

8. Grab your qatayef mixture, and pour 2 TBSPs of batter onto the griddle into small circles - say about 3-4 inches diameter. Keep repeating this until you're out of all of your batter.

9. Allow the batter to heat up, and the most important thing to know is that you are NOT flipping it onto the other side. Once you see bubbles popping up to the surface after 3 minutes, you can use a spatula to pick them up and place them onto a plate.

10. Avoid stacking them on top of each other and have the bubble side up. Allow them to cool.

11. Now for the filling. Fill each qatayef "pancake" with the walnut filling you created. Don't fill them too much or they will not be able to fold well/they will tear.

12. Once you've filled one qatayef with the walnut filling, fold it in half and pinch the sides firmly with your fingertips to close. Add to a plate.

13. Have your oven preheated to 400 on bake. You're going to place all of the qatayef onto a baking pan and toast them for 5 minutes in the oven to get a crispier taste.

14. Once they're done baking, gently take them out, and add them onto a serving dish.

15. Take the syrup out of the fridge, warm it up in the microwave for 30 seconds, and drizzle it onto each qatayef to your liking or leave it on the side and dip the qatayef in to it.

16. Enjoy!

xoxo,

#averagearabgirl

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