Kadaif, oriental pastry

Let's continue this festive season with an oriental pastry that is typical in Greece. You will need a special oriental pastry that is called "kadaif" and you will find it in shops that sell oriental products. You can keep it in the freezer for several months, so if you like this recipe, just get double quantity for the next time :)  It has a syrup, so it's quite sweet, once again, be careful with calories...

Ingredients

500gr of kadaif

350gr grated walnuts

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of clove powder

1/4 cup of breadcrumbs

1/4 cup of sugar

2 spoons of brandy

1 cup of butter

1 cup of margarine

For the syrup :

2 1/2 cups of water

3 cups of sugar

zest of an untreated lemon

 

Start by grating the walnuts... and then add the rest of the ingredients apart from the kadaif and the butters.

 Prepare the kadaif by opening with your hands and even softly rub it to become more tender.

 Put in a small oven pan that you have buttered before, half of the kadaif. On top, empty the whole mixture of the walnuts and spread it evenly.

 Cover with the rest of the kadaif.

 Melt in a bowl and in the microwave both the butter and the margarine. Pour it evenly to the kadaif.
Bake it in the oven at 180 degrees of Celsius in fan for about 40min or until it gets a nice golden color.

 10 minutes before taking out the kadaif from the oven prepare the syrup. Boil for about 8min all the ingredients.
When the kadaif is ready, take it out of the oven, wait for about 5 min and pour the syrup evenly all over.
Leave it to absorb the whole syrup for a couple of hours.
Your kadaif is ready to taste!



Tip: You can also cover it with a layer of pastry creme and chantilly and in that case is called "ekmek kadaif" but I find it heavy already with the syrup, that I try to avoid it :)