Kahi
Kahi is an Iraqi breakfast treat sold in bakeries in the morning: very thin dough folded with melted ghee, baked crisp and soaked in sugar syrup. It is served with geimar, thick buffalo-milk cream, and sweet tea. The construction resembles French puff pastry, but there is no chilling and no butter block to roll in — you simply stretch the dough thin, brush it with butter and fold. It is a sweet breakfast, so one piece per person is plenty.
Your own work in that: 50 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Resting 30 min
- Folding 25 min
- Baking 20 min
- Serving 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead the dough
Mix the flour with the salt, add the water and a tablespoon of the oil and knead for 8–10 minutes until smooth and very elastic.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 170 ml lukewarm water · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil · 120 g ghee, melted
Rest the dough
Divide the dough into 6 balls of about 80 g, brush them with the rest of the oil, cover and rest 30 minutes. Rested dough stretches like paper.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 170 ml lukewarm water · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil · 120 g ghee, melted
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar with the water and lemon juice for 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Add the cardamom and cool.
Ingredients: 150 g sugar · 100 ml water for the syrup · 1 tsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp ground cardamom · 150 g geimar or clotted cream
Stretch the dough
On an oiled worktop stretch one ball by hand into a thin, almost translucent round about 35 cm across. A few tears do not matter.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 170 ml lukewarm water · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil · 120 g ghee, melted
Thin enough to see the worktop through.Brush with ghee
Brush the sheet with melted ghee, using about a tablespoon per round.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 170 ml lukewarm water · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil · 120 g ghee, melted
Butter between the layers gives the flakiness.Fold
Fold the sheet into thirds like a letter, then again crossways, into a square of about 10 cm. Repeat with the other balls.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 170 ml lukewarm water · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil · 120 g ghee, melted
Bake
Set the squares on a lined tray, brush the tops with the remaining ghee and bake at 220°C for 15–20 minutes, until golden and crisp. Pastry this thin colours fast, so look in after a quarter of an hour.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 170 ml lukewarm water · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil · 120 g ghee, melted
Crisp and golden, layer upon layer.Syrup and serve
Pour the cooled syrup over the hot pastries — hot onto cold, so the syrup soaks in and the pastry stays crisp. Serve at once with a spoonful of thick cream.
Ingredients: 150 g sugar · 100 ml water for the syrup · 1 tsp lemon juice · ¼ tsp ground cardamom · 150 g geimar or clotted cream
Before you start
Geimar
Geimar is thick, rich buffalo-milk cream, close in taste to English clotted cream. Middle Eastern shops sometimes carry it; otherwise use clotted cream, or mascarpone loosened with a little whipping cream (30%).
Less sweet
For a less sweet version use only half the syrup, or serve it separately for dipping — which is what many Iraqi households do anyway.
Storage
Kahi is best within an hour of baking. Without syrup it keeps a day in a tin; refresh it for 5 minutes at 200°C and add the syrup then.
