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Sugar Free Kaunafa

Hey lovely people I want to adress this has been one of my many archive pictures that did not start out as a sugar free post but I am making it into one. The featured image picture is the finished one while on the left was the first one I made and a Palistinian brother who gave me this recipe told me the shreaded phyllo dough was supposed to be ontop too. This just like the basbousa is also syrup soaked and this is relatively easy one. I recomend 1/4 cup of Zayed Brothers sugar free syrup. Put this in a small pot with 1 oz of water over low heat. Add 3 capfuls of lemon juice and 1 small piece of grated lemon peel and cook the syrup for 5 minutes and shut off the heat.

In a large baking dish with the oven preheated at 375F or 150C take some parchment paper and place it in a springform pan and spray the parchment paper with cooking spray. Take some shreaded phyllo dough and cover the bottom and add a layer of cheese. You will need 1 box of frozen phyllo dough and they sell it in places where Middle Eastern grocerys are sold. 1 package of cheese is needed too. I used cream cheese. You can also use fresh mozzerella, my Paneer (Cheese), store bought farmer’s cheese or dry ricotta cheese the store bought version. I was told Nabulus cheese was an absolute must but it is extremely salty from what I heard, In this case if you can’t get it then the others would do nicely. Add 1 pinch of kaunafa color and a little syrup. Please do not use all of the syrup at once because you need it for the rest. of this yummy desert. Add some nuts if you prefer or peanuts and pine nuts would work too. It is totally up to you. Keep going on layering it like you would lasagna and the phyllo dough should be on top of it covering the last layer of cheese and then the last bit of syrup making sure it is soaked all over the place and last sprinkle of kaunafa powder and bake in oven for 15 minutes.

The kaunafa should look a little toasty and the cheese warm and gooy. It is enjoyable with hoth tea or hot coffee. This was one of my favorite deserts when I ate it on the regular but I hardly touch anything like this because of the carbs would sneak in and cause a spike in my glucose levels so I have to watch it.

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