Antakya Künefesi

Appearance & taste

The dessert is a round disc 1 to 2 cm high; its diameter of 10 to 50 cm depends on the number of portions. The top and bottom layers of pastry threads and butter turn brownish during baking and form a crisp crust, while the cheese in the middle becomes soft and creamy. Only the syrup makes the pastry sweet; it is added shortly before serving, at any desired sweetness. Antakya Künefesi is eaten warm, and the cheese melts and forms strings. According to the specification, it is one of the few Turkish desserts made with cheese.

Production

The two basic ingredients are made in the area: Künefelik kadayıf, lightly baked pastry threads, and the cheese Antakya künefelik, which is made only for this dessert. The pastry threads are produced in a quick baking process on a rotating tray; adjusting their thickness and texture takes experience that is passed on from master to apprentice. The cheese is made from untreated cow’s milk from Hatay province, is elastic, has a fibrous structure known as “chicken breast” and becomes creamy above 65 °C.

The cheese is baked between two layers of pastry threads with butter on a flat tray whose size depends on the desired number of portions. Unbaked, the dessert can be frozen at −18 °C for transport and distribution. The packaging states, among other things, that it must be baked and eaten warm straight after the syrup has been added.

Origin & history

The area comprises Hatay province with districts such as Antakya, İskenderun, Samandağ and Reyhanlı; it lies in the far south of Turkey between the Mediterranean and Syria. The specification attributes the taste of the cheese to the milk of cows grazing on the province’s rich flora; some 2,000 plant species grow there, 300 of them endemic, and zahter (wild thyme) probably contributes most.

According to documents going back to the 18th century, making künefe was regarded as a trade of its own at the time; records from Antakya from 1898 to 1901 list the baking tray used for it among common goods. From 1935 to 1960 Antakya Künefesi was sold on Köprübaşı square, and a tourist guide to Hatay from 1971 names künefe among the typical dishes of Antakya. At the annual Antakya festival the longest Antakya Künefesi is made, one metre longer every year; in 2019 it measured 81 metres.