Qatayef Asafiri is a delicious, fragrant and beautiful Arabian pancake stuffed with sweet cheese filling and ground pistachios. A great addition to your pancake repertoire!
Happy Friday, friends! And happy Maslenitsa!
If you are not familiar with Maslenitsa, or a pancake week, it’s a Slavic festival that celebrates the end of winter and the start of spring. It’s the last week before the Great Lent according to Orthodox religion. We celebrate this week with lots and lots of pancakes and crepes. Sweet and savory, with jam, mushrooms, caviar or simply warm with lots of butter.
I already shared the traditional recipe for classic all-purpose crepes that we make during this week, but this year I wanted to try something different.
Sweet Cheese Qatayef Asafiri
Qatayef is a delicious and beautiful pancake that is very popular in Middle Eastern countries.
These Arabian pancakes are so fluffy and airy due to yeasted batter and are very unique because they are only fried on one side. Traditionally they are sealed halfway to create a little pocket, which then gets stuffed with sweet cheese filling and nuts, and is served with some honey or simple syrup.
I’m sooo excited to share this recipe with you guys so you can add it to your pancake repertoire! I hope you enjoy it and let me know if you give it a go!
Making Qatayef Asafiri
The batter is pretty straightforward – combine all the ingredients and let it rest for 10 min to activate the yeast.
Then pour 1/8 of a cup of batter into a preheated skillet over medium-high heat and fry on one side until the top surface is no longer shiny, about 2-3 minutes. The bubbles created during frying process is a good indication that yeast in the batter is working properly.
Once the surface is dry and no longer shiny remove the pancake onto a clean kitchen towel and cover to prevent it from drying out. Continue with the rest of the batter. Adjust the heat as needed so the bottom part of the pancake doesn’t burn. Let the pancakes cool slightly, then fold into half circle and seal it pressing gently on the sides. Leave a small opening for the filling.
Sweet Cheese Filling
The sweet cheese filling is a combination of farmers cheese or ricotta cheese, yogurt, sugar and some traditional middle eastern flavoured ingredients like cardamom and rose water.
Simply mix all the ingredients in the mixing bowl and fill the Qatayef Asafiri with the filling using a small spoon.
Ground some pistachios in the food processor and dip each Qatayef Asafiri in it. Serve them on the platter along with some honey or simple rose water syrup.
Sweet Cheese Qatayef Asafiri
Ingredients
Pancake Batter
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/2 tsp active dried yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp orange blossom water
Sweet Cheese Filling
- 2 cup farmers or ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp rose water
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup ground pistachios
- honey for serving
Instructions
Pancake Batter
- In a large mixing bowl combine warm water with yeast and sugar.
- Set aside for 10 minutes. Then add milk.
- In the meantime, combine the rest of the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients into the milk mixture gradually and whisk creating the pancake batter without lumps.
- Set aside the batter for 15-20 minutes to give the yeast time to wake up.
- Preheat a non-greased non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Pour 1/8 of a cup of batter into a preheated skillet and fry the pancake on one side until the top surface is no longer shiny, about 2-3 minutes.
- The bubbles created during the frying process is a good indication that yeast in the batter is working properly.
- Once the surface is dry and no longer shiny remove the pancake onto a clean kitchen towel and cover to prevent it from drying out. Continue with the rest of the batter. Adjust the heat as needed so the bottom part of the pancake doesn’t burn.
- Let the pancakes cool slightly, then fold into half circle and seal it pressing gently on the sides. Leave a small opening for the filling.
- With a small spoon, fill the opening with sweet cheese filling.
Sweet Cheese Filling
- Combine all the ingredients in the mixing bowl and stuff the Qatayef Asafiri.
- Dip each pancake into some ground pistachios and serve with honey or simple syrup.
Have you made my recipe? Let me know by leaving a comment and rating the recipe below! Don’t forget to take a picture and tag @gastrosenses and use #gastrosenses on Instagram so I can see your beautiful creations! Happy eating!
What a unique technique! Im not very familiar with middle Eastern cuisine so I’ve never heard of these. They sound delicious
Thank you so much Julia! Isn’t it exciting how there’s still so much to learn about the world of food!
The end looks like a cannoli with ricotta and ground pistachios! 🙂 . I love their shape and their flavors! They look so pretty and something I did not know about. Glad now I know about them! 🙂
Thank you so much Nicoletta! I agree with you on cannoli, they do look like them. Hope you’ll give them a try one day!
These are certainly not your everyday run-of-the-mill pancakes! So beautiful! Thanks for sharing something I had not heard of before. Great recipe with clear instructions!
Thank you so much Elaine! Have a good weekend full of pancakes 🙂
This is such a creative recipe! these pancakes look stunning and will surely be a part of my pancake repertoire! yummy in every sense
Thanks so much Albert! Hope you love it!
There is little in this world that delights me more than knowing just how much undiscovered food (and food culture) this out there. I’m constantly immersing myself in culinary subjects, and yet I can click a link and suddenly discover an entire subject I knew nothing about. I’ve never heard of these amazing little pancakes, and I’ve also never heard of maslenitsa! Consider me thoroughly enamoured with both! There’s nothing quite as wonderful as a good pancake, and I’m in equally in love with the idea of a cheese-and-pistachio stuffed pancake and a week-long festival dedicated to pancakes. It’s so interesting that these are fried only on the one side – it reminds me a little bit of a classic French omelette that way, with one side left tender and un-browned. Thank you so much for posting this!
Thanks so much Sean! I am totally with you on how amazing the world of food is and how much is still undiscovered! This is why I really love my job and when I learn something new I get really excited to share it with all of you! Hope you give these a try! Cheers!