Middle East, how we've missed you
Our next stop finds us back in the Middle East this time, more specifically we've arrived in Egypt. It took us awhile to find an Egyptian pancake recipe. Every thing I searched came up with this place called the Egyptian Pancake House. Upon first glance, the food in the pictures I found for this place looked like pancakes, and unknowing Americans kept calling them pancakes as well. However, upon further investigation, I soon found that these are not pancakes. In Egyptian they are called feteer meshaltet. These are actually more like a round, stuffed philo dough-ish food, something which doesn't fit our criteria for a pancake.
We were hoping to find a unique Egyptian pancake recipe instead of the atayef I tend to find referenced for most Middle Eastern Arabic countries, but alas, we were unable to find one. So we ended up making a new version of atayef for Egypt. You might recall our first attempts at atayef were successful, but not as successful as they should have been. You can click on the link to revisit our atayef exploits in Bahrain if you'd like.
On to Egyptian atayef. To make these you will need the following:
2¼ teaspoons of yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1½ cups warm water
1½ cups flour
pinch of salt
1 cup chopped pecans (the original recipe called for walnuts, but I don't like them so I substituted pecans)
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup of melted clarified butter
3 cups sugar
2½ cups cold water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons orange blossom water or rose water
First you'll need to make your batter. Mix the yeast, sugar, water, flour, and salt together until it is well mixed with no lumps. Cover and set aside in a warm place for one hour. After an hour, the batter will be bubbly and look like this:
Now you're ready to cook the pancakes. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to dip the batter and make the pancakes. Fry the pancakes in a lightly oiled nonstick pan. These are a pancake that only get cooked on one side, so cook until they are completely dry.
Continue cooking until all of the batter has been used up. Set pancakes aside and allow them to cool completely. While the pancakes are cooling, make the filling and the syrup. For the filling, chop up your pecans and mix them with the 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
For the syrup, you will need to place all of the ingredients in a pot except for the rose water. Stir and heat until boiling. Once it begins boiling, allow it to boil for about 12 minutes. There is no need to stir while it is boiling.
After 12 minutes have passed, remove from heat, add rose water, and mix thoroughly.
Now it's time to begin assembling the atayef. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Take a pancake and place some of the nut filling in the middle on the uncooked side of the pancake. Do this for each of the pancakes.
After adding the nut filling, fold them in half, and press the edges together so that you have half moon shapes, and the edges are completely pressed together.
Now arrange the folded atayef on a baking sheet and brush with butter. Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and while still hot, dip them in the syrup. Now you're ready to eat your atayef!
While they were a bit on the sweet side, they were mmmm, mmmmm, good!
We were hoping to find a unique Egyptian pancake recipe instead of the atayef I tend to find referenced for most Middle Eastern Arabic countries, but alas, we were unable to find one. So we ended up making a new version of atayef for Egypt. You might recall our first attempts at atayef were successful, but not as successful as they should have been. You can click on the link to revisit our atayef exploits in Bahrain if you'd like.
On to Egyptian atayef. To make these you will need the following:
2¼ teaspoons of yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1½ cups warm water
1½ cups flour
pinch of salt
1 cup chopped pecans (the original recipe called for walnuts, but I don't like them so I substituted pecans)
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup of melted clarified butter
3 cups sugar
2½ cups cold water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons orange blossom water or rose water
First you'll need to make your batter. Mix the yeast, sugar, water, flour, and salt together until it is well mixed with no lumps. Cover and set aside in a warm place for one hour. After an hour, the batter will be bubbly and look like this:
Now you're ready to cook the pancakes. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to dip the batter and make the pancakes. Fry the pancakes in a lightly oiled nonstick pan. These are a pancake that only get cooked on one side, so cook until they are completely dry.
Continue cooking until all of the batter has been used up. Set pancakes aside and allow them to cool completely. While the pancakes are cooling, make the filling and the syrup. For the filling, chop up your pecans and mix them with the 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
For the syrup, you will need to place all of the ingredients in a pot except for the rose water. Stir and heat until boiling. Once it begins boiling, allow it to boil for about 12 minutes. There is no need to stir while it is boiling.
After 12 minutes have passed, remove from heat, add rose water, and mix thoroughly.
Now it's time to begin assembling the atayef. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Take a pancake and place some of the nut filling in the middle on the uncooked side of the pancake. Do this for each of the pancakes.
After adding the nut filling, fold them in half, and press the edges together so that you have half moon shapes, and the edges are completely pressed together.
Now arrange the folded atayef on a baking sheet and brush with butter. Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and while still hot, dip them in the syrup. Now you're ready to eat your atayef!
While they were a bit on the sweet side, they were mmmm, mmmmm, good!
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