Knafeh
A satisfying Saudi Arabian dessert built around knafeh, yellow food colouring and mozzarella — roughly 85 minutes start to finish, and rated medium to make. Scroll down for the ingredient checklist, a serving scaler and unit converter, and the method broken into 12 steps.
You'll mainly reach for oven and pan. At medium difficulty across 12 steps, it's manageable with a little attention.
What you'll need
Shopping list (4)
Pantry staples (you likely have these)
Diet: not verified. We could not confirm knafeh from the ingredient list, so we make no dietary claim for this recipe.
Contains: Dairy
Allergen labels are informational and may not cover cross-contact; verify every package and consult a qualified professional for medical dietary needs. Diet labels are derived from the ingredient list on this page — how we verify diet and allergen labels.
Food-safety and allergen information is general, not medical advice. Follow current guidance from your local food-safety authority, verify product labels, and seek qualified advice for allergies or health conditions.
How to make it
- Take kanfhe in a bowl and roughly cut them. Pour melted butter, yellow food color and mix well with your hands.
- In a separate bowl mix milk, cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch well.
- Turn on the flame and boil the liquid, when it gets thick turn off the flame let it cool down a little bit.
- Add mozzarella in it and mix it well.
- Now make a base with half of the kanfhe in a dish, gently press it to level the dough well.
- Pour the cheese mixture on the top and level it with a spoon.
- Cover it with the other half of the kanfhe.
- Put the dish in a preheated oven at 200 degree for about 20-25 minutes.
- It's ready when kunafa is golden and crunchy in the surface.
- Boil water in a pan and dissolve sugar in it for 4–5 minutes. OR cook it until slightly thicken and keep on stirring. Add lemon juice with rose water, mix well.
- Evenly pour the syrup over the kunafa as soon as it comes out of the oven.
- Your kunafa is ready to serve.
You'll use: Oven · Pan · Saucepan
Watch how it's made
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Ingredient substitutions
- Butter
- olive oil (¾ the amount) · coconut oil · margarine
- Milk
- any unsweetened plant milk · ½ cup evaporated milk + ½ cup water
- Lemon
- lime · 1 tbsp white wine vinegar per lemon
What to serve with Knafeh
- Shakshouka Miscellaneous
- Shawarma chuck roast wrap Beef
- Chicken Shawarma with homemade garlic herb yoghurt sauce Chicken
- Shakshuka Feta Cheese Miscellaneous
Tips & common questions
How long does Knafeh take to make?
About 85 minutes from start to finish — an estimate based on the 12 steps and 12 ingredients. Times vary with your kitchen and how much prep you do ahead.
What can I use instead of butter?
Try olive oil (¾ the amount). See the substitutions section above for more swaps.
Can I scale this recipe up or down?
Yes — use the servings control above the ingredients and every quantity rescales automatically (fractions included). Cooking times stay roughly the same; very large batches may need a little longer.
Is Knafeh suitable for my diet?
We make no dietary claim for this recipe: at least one ingredient could not be resolved to a definite plant or animal source, so labelling it either way would be a guess. The full ingredient list is above.
Related recipes
Structured source recipe — not yet independently kitchen-tested by Consomee. How we source, test & correct recipes.
Recipe data for Knafeh via TheMealDB (open database). ▶ Video. Original source. Consomee adds the scaler, ingredient tools, timing and structure — how we source recipes.