Qatayef
Qatayef has one feature that sets it apart from ordinary pancakes: it is cooked on one side only. The top stays raw, moist and covered in open bubbles — and that is exactly what lets it be pinched shut with your fingers like a dumpling, with no water, egg or glue of any kind. A pancake cooked on both sides will no longer seal.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Batter 10 min
- Resting 40 min
- Syrup 10 min
- Cooking one side 25 min
- Filling and frying 20 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneBlend a thin batter
Blitz all the batter ingredients in a blender into a smooth, thin mixture, slightly looser than pancake batter. A blender gives a lump-free batter in seconds; a whisk works too, it just takes longer.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 50 g semolina · 500 ml water · 4 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 pinch salt
Rest for 40 minutes
Leave covered for 40 minutes. Yeast and baking powder together produce the gas that, during cooking, pushes a dense net of open bubbles to the surface — those bubbles are what later grip the filling.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 50 g semolina · 500 ml water · 4 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 pinch salt
Boil the syrup and cool it
Ideally while the batter rests: boil the sugar with the water for 7 minutes, take it off the heat and stir in the juice of half a lemon and the orange blossom water. Leave to cool — the syrup must be cold when you dip the hot qatayef into it.
Ingredients: 300 g sugar · 200 ml water · ½ pcs lemon · 1 tbsp orange blossom water · 500 ml oil · 60 g pistachios
Cook one side on a dry pan
Pour about 40 ml of batter (a small, not quite full ladle) onto a dry, medium-hot pan, forming 10 cm rounds. Cook only until the top loses its wet sheen and the whole surface is covered in bubbles (1–2 minutes) — do not flip. Lift off, lay them side by side and cover with a cloth. Cook in batches, about 20 minutes in total.
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour · 50 g semolina · 500 ml water · 4 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 pinch salt
Top matt and fully bubbled — do not turn it.Fill and pinch shut with your fingers
Beat the ricotta with the cream and sugar. For the second version, chop the walnuts and mix them with the cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the syrup. The cheese filling is enough for about 14, the nut filling for about 6. Put a tablespoon of filling on the uncooked side of a cooled pancake, fold in half and pinch the edge closed, starting at the point. The dough seals itself — if it will not, the pancake was cooked too long and dried out.
Ingredients: 300 g ricotta · 60 ml double cream · 30 g sugar · 120 g walnuts · ½ tsp cinnamon
Edge pinched from the point — no glue of any kind.Fry to gold and dip in syrup
Heat the oil in a small, deep pan to 170°C and fry the qatayef in batches of 4–5, 2 minutes a side, until golden. Lift out with a slotted spoon and dip straight into the cold syrup for 20 seconds. Scatter with ground pistachio and serve warm.
Ingredients: 300 g sugar · 200 ml water · ½ pcs lemon · 1 tbsp orange blossom water · 500 ml oil · 60 g pistachios
Straight from the oil into cold syrup, 20 seconds.
Before you start
Small qatayef stay open
Large qatayef with cheese or nuts are sealed completely and fried or baked. There are also small ones, asafiri: filled with thick milk cream (ashta), pinched shut only halfway and the open end dipped in ground pistachio — these are not fried.
Baked instead of fried
Filled qatayef can also be brushed with melted butter, baked for 12 minutes at 200°C and then dipped in the syrup in the same way. They come out lighter and less rich, though less crisp. Many households prefer this simpler version.
Pancakes in advance
The pancakes alone, layered with paper and tightly wrapped, keep two days in the fridge or a month in the freezer; bring them to room temperature before filling. Fill and fry only before serving — filled in advance they soften from the cheese.
