Lavash
Paper-thin unleavened flatbread, blistered and scored in the tradition of the hearth.
Step-by-step →Dessert · Cilicia, diaspora
KADAYIF
Քադայիֆ
Shredded pastry threads pressed around walnuts, baked to gold and drowned in lemon syrup.
1 h 15 min
Total time
Serves 12
Yield
4
Steps
Step by step
HOW IT IS MADE
- 01
Loosen the threads
Pull the pastry apart with your fingers until fluffy, then toss it thoroughly with the melted butter so every strand is coated.
- 02
Layer with walnuts
Press half into a buttered tray, spread the walnut-and-sugar filling, then cover with the rest and press down firmly.
- 03
Bake to deep gold
Bake at 180 °C for 40–45 minutes. Pale kadayif is undercooked kadayif; you want an even amber.
- 04
Syrup while hot
Boil sugar, water and lemon into a syrup, cool it slightly and pour it over the hot pastry. Rest three hours before cutting.
At a glance
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Energy
- ≈ 350 kcal per piece
- Preparation
- 30 min
- Cooking
- 45 min baking
- Season
- All year, especially holidays
- Occasion
- Easter, New Year, church fairs and bakery counters
Cook's notes
GET IT RIGHT
- Pull the threads apart properly before buttering; clumps bake raw.
- Coat every strand with butter — this is what makes it crisp rather than chewy.
- Press the layers down hard so the tray holds together when cut.
- Bake to deep amber; pale kadayif tastes of nothing.
Variations
Cheese kadayif
Filled with mild stretchy cheese and served hot instead of nuts.
Rolled kadayif
Individual bundles of threads wrapped around walnuts.
Questions
ASKED IN THE KITCHEN
Hot syrup or cold?
Warm syrup on hot pastry, poured evenly. Ice-cold syrup makes it soggy at the base.
Where do I buy the threads?
Frozen or fresh at Middle Eastern and Armenian grocers, sold as kadayif or kataifi.
History & Culture
WHY THIS DISH
Kadayif shares its threads with the wider eastern Mediterranean, but in Armenian bakeries it is a walnut sweet, made in wide trays alongside pakhlava for holidays and church fairs.
The diaspora kept it alive commercially: in Beirut, Aleppo, Los Angeles and Yerevan the same tray of golden threads marks a shop as Armenian before you read the sign.
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