Kataifi - Greek Nut and Honey Pastry Rolls
from CookingTheGlobe

Your guests will be in awe after tasting these nut and honey pastry rolls coming from Greece. Made with Kataifi dough, they are sweet, rich, and beautiful! You can replace the pistachios with walnuts, or create any other combinations you like. 

Kataifi is not your ordinary dough. It is a shredded fillo dough which looks like a shredded wheat or rice vermicelli noodles. Don’t worry though, it’s easy to work with. You just need to tear the Kataifi to pieces, brush them with butter, add the filling and roll them up tightly. Bake and cover with a sweet honeyed syrup.

The filling:
1 cup (120g) pistachios, no shell, finely chopped
1 cup (140g) blanched almonds, finely chopped
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg white, lightly beaten

The syrup:
1 cup honey
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar
Peel of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cinnamon stick or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Thaw the Kataifi dough in a fridge overnight, taking it out about 2 hours before working with it and letting it to come to room temperature.

Pulse the nuts in a food processor. Reserve 2 teaspoons of pistachios for sprinkling. In a bowl, combine together pistachios, almonds, sugar, cinnamon and egg white and mix well.

Preheat oven to 350F (175C) degrees.

When the pastry thaws, divide it into 18-22 pieces. The length of one piece in my case was about 10 inches (25cm). Work with one piece at a time and cover the remaining pieces with a damp towel (we have to keep it moist). Brush the surface of a piece with the melted butter and place a heaping tablespoon of the filling at one end of it. Roll it up firmly. [I have seen recipes that say to roll in aluminum foil, which would give a tighter wrap.]

Place all the rolls seam side down in a slightly buttered 9x13-inch baking dish. Brush well with the remaining butter. Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool.

To make the syrup add all the syrup ingredients to a pot an bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes more. Pour the syrup over the rolls. It is important: the syrup has to be hot, while the rolls have to be cool.

Allow the pastry to absorb the syrup. Sprinkle with reserved pistachios and serve. Enjoy!

Store in a covered container at room temperature.

Servings: 20 rolls