VERMICELLI KUNAFA

Recipe By: Hana Nasir

Instagram: kitchen_o_mania

Ingredients :

350 gm Roasted Vermicelli 100 gm Butter (Melted) Pistachios for garnishing

For the Kunafa filling : 1 cup Milk 2 tbsp Corn flour 3 tbsp Sugar 30 ml Cream 1/3 cup Cream cheese For the Sugar syrup : ½ cup Sugar 1 ½ cup Water A Pinch of Saffron or 1 tsp Rose water

Instructions : * Take Vermicelli in bowl. Crush them with your fingers into smaller pieces. * Pour melted butter and mix them well with your hands. Steps for making kunafa filling: * Take a separate mixing bowl add milk, sugar and corn flour. Mix them well. * Now turn on the flame, take thick bottom pan add and heat the above mixture on low flame, until it gets thicker. Keep on stirring mixture with a rubber spatula to prevent it from sticking to the pan. * Add cream and cream cheese to the mixture and mix it well. Turn off the flame once the cream cheese is mixed properly and it becomes a smooth mixture. Steps for making sugar syrup: * Take another pan, add water, sugar and cook it until sugar gets dissolved completely. * Add in a pinch of Saffron and mix well. * Keep on stirring and cook for 3-4 minutes till it thickens a little. Turn off the flame. Steps for baking kunafa: * Take a loose bottom pan (Springform pan) make the base with half vermicelli mixture, press it to level the dough. * Now pour the cheese mixture on this base formed and spread it evenly with spoon. Do not spread the filling till the walls of the pan. Leave half to 1 inch border. * After that, take remaining vermicelli mixture and form another layer above and around the cheese layer. (This way the cheese layer will not leak.) * Pre heat the oven, put the dish in the oven at 200 degrees for about 18-20 minutes. * For the first 10 minutes bake the kunafa on the setting in which only the bottom rods heat up. * After 10 minutes bake the kunafa on the setting where only upper rod heats up. * Kunafa is ready when it turns golden and crunchy in the surface. Garnishing Kunafa: * Warm the sugar syrup just before pouring. * Evenly pour the prepared sugar syrup on the top of kunafa layer as soon as it comes out of the oven. * Garnish it with pistachio before you serve. * Lastly, cut it like pizza or cake and kunafa is ready to eat.