Skip to main content

Kanafa

"A favorite Palestinian dessert! Crunchy shredded phyllo dough is baked with a layer of creamy sweet cheese and then drenched in rosewater syrup. It's simple yet impressive. The cheese filling is traditionally made from Nabulsi cheese that is desalted. The ricotta-mozzarella mix is a great substitute, and lower-fat products can be used. If you have access to a Middle Eastern grocery, you can probably find kanafa dye, which turns the dough into the orange or reddish color that is the signature of kanafa."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Kanafa

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Kanafa

1 9x13-inch pan
Prep25 min
Cook35 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

422Calories
18 gProtein
28 gFat
23 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 9 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Ricotta Cheese1/2 cup (124g) part-skim174
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Mozzarella Cheese1 oz (28g)85
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Phyllo Doughnot in our table0
Syrupnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0
Rosenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ricotta cheese + mozzarella cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together371 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Phyllo dough + syruptop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mozzarella cheese + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together547 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Lemon + rosetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (phyllo dough, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, sugar, butter, syrup, rose):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against phyllo dough, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, sugar, butter, syrup, rose. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.