Kunafa is one of the very famous traditional middle eastern desserts. Kunafa is very long thin pastry kind of looking like soft and very thin angel hair pasta.

Something has been going on with kunafa lately, for some reason there is a trend to fill it with tons of different flavors and options. Long time ago the kunafa could be served in one of three forms, plain with sugar syrup, with nuts and syrup or with cream and syrup. However, things have changed! Somebody in Egypt invented the kunafa with mango, since then things got out of control.

Now we see konafa with nutella, with dates, with cheesecake, with berries and endless stuffing. I still lean towards the old traditional way, however, I get it! It is good to try new desserts specially when you have some fruits in the house. Yesterday, I was cleaning the pantry and I found a can of pineapple that was not expired yet 🙂 So, it came across my mind to use it with kunafa instead of the mangos and it was lovely and refreshing. Also, way cheaper than the mangos and way easier. I am also using mahlabiya (vanilla milk custard) instead of regular cream as it is more tastier and has a nice thick texture on the top of the kunafa. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 packet of konafa
1 cup of ghee or samn or melted unsalted butter
1/2 can of pineapple
3 cups of custard or as you want (recipe in link)
Sugar syrup at room temperature (recipe in link)

Dice the pineapple into small pieces and make sure to keep the can juice on the side for now.
Cut and tear the kunafa into very small pieces and rub very well with ghee or samn. Make sure it is covered well with the ghee or samn.
Now you need to give it the nice golden color, so you have 2 options:

• Bake it in the oven for about 25 or 30 minutes at 360 degrees F.
• Or use the stove top and stir it around in a non stick pan

Add 2 tablespoons of the pineapple juice from the can to the sugar syrup and mix together.
As soon as you get the kunafa out of the heat, put it in the serving bowl and add the syrup mix on the top of it.

Add the custard.
Add the diced pineapples on the top for garnish and Enjoy!