Ekmek kadayıfı
A dessert associated above all with Afyon, a town famous for its kaymak — thick, unsweetened cream skimmed from boiled milk. The name means bread kadayıf and says it all: dry, porous bread is cooked in syrup until it darkens to amber and takes on a jelly-like texture. Two things matter: the bread must first be dried thoroughly — only then, briefly softened with water, does it soak up syrup without collapsing into mush — and the syrup goes in gradually, each addition allowed to soak in.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Drying the bread 20 min
- Syrup 20 min
- Cooking in syrup 30 min
- Chilling 180 min
- Kaymak and pistachios 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneDry the bread in the oven
Pack the rusks or slices of bread tightly in a metal roasting tin of about 20 × 30 cm that can also go on the hob, and dry 15 minutes at 160°C, until completely dry and lightly coloured. Only dry bread takes up syrup without falling apart in the cooking.
Ingredients: 300 g rusks · 300 ml water
Soften the bread with hot water
Cover the bread with hot water and wait 5 minutes, until it softens and swells slightly, then pour off the excess. This opens the pores to the syrup — a rusk hit straight with syrup absorbs it only on the surface.
Ingredients: 300 g rusks · 300 ml water
Five minutes in hot water — it opens the pores.Make the spiced syrup
Boil the sugar with the water, cloves and cinnamon for 10 minutes, adding the lemon juice at the end. The lemon prevents crystallisation — without it the syrup turns grainy as it cools.
Ingredients: 500 g sugar · 700 ml water · 1 pcs lemon · 3 pcs cloves · 1 pcs cinnamon
Pour on the hot syrup gradually
Pour a third of the hot syrup over the bread and wait for it to soak in, then the next third. Poured at once it runs down the sides and leaves the centre of the bread dry.
Ingredients: 500 g sugar · 700 ml water · 1 pcs lemon · 3 pcs cloves · 1 pcs cinnamon
A third at a time — each must soak in first.Cook the bread in syrup until dark
Set the tin over low heat (across two burners if it is large) and cook 25–30 minutes, basting the top with syrup from the edges, until the bread darkens to amber and has absorbed nearly all the liquid. This is where the jelly-like texture forms.
Ingredients: 500 g sugar · 700 ml water · 1 pcs lemon · 3 pcs cloves · 1 pcs cinnamon
Cool and chill three hours
Cool in the tin, cover and chill at least 3 hours. Warm ekmek kadayıfı is too soft to cut; cold, it sets and slices into neat squares.
Ingredients: 300 g rusks · 300 ml water
Make the kaymak from mascarpone
Without real kaymak, whip the mascarpone with the cream into a thick smooth mass — no sugar. Kaymak should be unsweetened: its rich neutrality balances the very sweet soaked bread.
Ingredients: 250 g kaymak or mascarpone · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 60 g pistachios
Spread the kaymak and scatter pistachios
Spread the kaymak in a thick layer over the cold dessert, cut into squares and cover densely with ground pistachios. In Afyon kaymak is never skimped — the layer can be almost as thick as the bread.
Ingredients: 250 g kaymak or mascarpone · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 60 g pistachios
Kaymak almost as thick as the bread — Afyon's pride.
Before you start
The original kadayıf bread
Turkey sells special round dry loaves made solely for this dessert. Large rusks, or bread cut thick and dried in the oven, are the closest substitute.
Real kaymak
Turkish kaymak is the thick layer of cream skimmed from boiled milk — traditionally buffalo milk, today often cow’s. It is creamy, unsweetened and firmer than cream. Balkan and Turkish shops sometimes stock it; mascarpone with cream gives a close result.
Five days without the kaymak
The soaked bread keeps five days in the fridge under film. Always add the kaymak and pistachios before serving — kaymak absorbs syrup and yellows, and pistachios soften.
