Knafeh

Name: Knafeh
Prep time: 16 min
Cook time: 29 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Saudi Arabian
Ingredients: 400g Knafeh; 6 tablespoons Unsalted Butter; 1 pinch Yellow Food Colouring; 1 cup Mozzarella; 1/4 cup Cream Cheese; 1 1/2 cup Milk; 4 tablespoons Sugar; 2 tablespoons Corn Flour; 1 cup Sugar; 1 cup Water; 1 tsp Rose water; 1/2 teaspoon Lemon Juice

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Dessert recipe with Saudi Arabian flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 77 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 45 min total

400g Knafeh
6 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
1 pinch Yellow Food Colouring
1 cup Mozzarella
1/4 cup Cream Cheese
1 1/2 cup Milk
4 tablespoons Sugar
2 tablespoons Corn Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Water
1 tsp Rose Water
1/2 teaspoon Lemon Juice

Step-by-step instructions

Take kanfhe in a bowl and roughly cut them. Pour melted butter, yellow food color and mix well with your hands.
In a separate bowl mix milk, cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch well.
Turn on the flame and boil the liquid, when it gets thick turn off the flame let it cool down a little bit.
Add mozzarella in it and mix it well.
Now make a base with half of the kanfhe in a dish, gently press it to level the dough well.
Pour the cheese mixture on the top and level it with a spoon.
Cover it with the other half of the kanfhe.
Put the dish in a preheated oven at 200 degree for about 20-25 minutes.
It's ready when kunafa is golden and crunchy in the surface.
Boil water in a pan and dissolve sugar in it for 4–5 minutes. OR cook it until slightly thicken and keep on stirring. Add lemon juice with rose water, mix well.
Evenly pour the syrup over the kunafa as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Your kunafa is ready to serve.

Why this works on a weeknight

Knafeh lands at about 45 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Sweet Finishes collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Knafeh actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍮 Sweet Finishes Dessert Saudi Arabian