I can forgive myself for not making kadaif pastry from scratch; it’s a fiddle, but can be found easily beside the filo pastry at most Kurdish, Turkish and international supermarkets. There’s something incredibly satisfying about the crunch from the multiple crisp layers of this pastry when it’s baked. Here, sliced apples are wrapped in kadaif, slathered in ghee, then baked, making the fruit jammy, but retaining its acidity. This makes for a brilliant sharing pudding, warming up the table as we head into winter.
Baked apples with kadaif
Georgina Hayden makes a savoury kadaif pie with courgette and cheese, which she finishes with roasted pine nuts. I would highly recommend giving it a go with the leftover pastry from this recipe.
Prep 25 min
Cook 35 min
Serves 8
4 cox apples
A splash of calvados or rum (25-30ml)
Juice of ½ lemon
40g light brown sugar
120g ghee, melted
½ x 400-500g packet kadaif pastry
Pistachios, crushed, to serve
Vanilla ice-cream, to serve
For the syrup
70g honey
20g golden caster sugar
½ vanilla pod
Heat the oven to 195C (175C fan)/380F/gas 5½ and put a baking tray in the middle to heat up.
Peel and halve the apples, cut each half into three wedges and cut out and discard the cores. Put the fruit in a bowl, add the calvados or rum, lemon juice and sugar, and toss with your hands to coat the apples. Lightly grease a medium casserole dish (round or rectangular) with the ghee.
Lay out bunches of kadaif pastry on a work surface – I use a single line of 2cm-thick strands, laid out flat. Starting at one end, put a piece of apple on the pastry and begin to wrap it up (don’t wrap it in more than three layers, though – you don’t want it too dense). Snip off the ends if they seem too long. Repeat with each piece of apple, then put them all in the prepared dish sitting snugly side by side.
Brush ghee liberally all over the wrapped apples. If there is any liquid left in the apple bowl, pour this over the wrapped apples, then bake for 35 minutes, until golden brown all over, then take out of the oven.
Meanwhile, make the syrup. Put the honey, sugar, vanilla and 170ml water in a saucepan, heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves, cook on a medium heat for five to 10 minutes, until the mix has thickened and reduced slightly, then take off the heat.
Pour the syrup over the baked apples the moment they come out of the oven – it should sizzle – then garnish with chopped pistachios. Leave to sit for 10 minutes, then serve with large scoops of ice-cream.
