Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Qatayef
Little stuffed pancakes filled with sweet walnuts, fried or baked and soaked in syrup, the classic sweet of Ramadan.
Palestinian · medium · serves 8
prep 40 min · cook 25 min
~599 cal · 12g protein · 77g carbs · 30g fat · 5g fiber · 40g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Qatayef are the signature sweet of Ramadan across Palestine and the Levant, so tied to the holy month that vendors set up dedicated stalls making the little pancakes for the season. They are a treat the whole region looks forward to all year.
A yeasted batter is cooked on one side only, leaving a spongy surface that grips a filling. The pancakes are folded around a sweet mixture of walnuts and cinnamon (or soft cheese), sealed into half-moons, then either deep-fried until golden or baked, and finally drenched in fragrant sugar syrup. Crisp or soft, warm and syrupy, they are a nightly delight after the fast is broken.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups fine (smeed na3em)
1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp lemon juice, for the syrup
1 1/2 cups walnuts, chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp
for frying oil, for frying
Instructions
1
Blend the semolina, flour, yeast, a spoon of the sugar and 3 cups of warm water into a smooth, pourable batter and rest it 20 to 45 minutes, then blend in the baking powder just before you cook.
✎ Chef’s note
More semolina than flour is what Palestinian cooks use, and it is what makes the pancakes crisp rather than soft. Add the baking powder at the last moment: too early and the batter over-rises, and the holes come out sparse instead of small and even. If the bubbles are far apart, the batter is too thick, so let down with warm water a spoonful at a time.
2
Cook small pancakes in a dry nonstick pan on one side only, about 2 minutes, until the top is spongy, full of holes and completely dry, then lift them onto a cloth and keep them covered with another.
✎ Chef’s note
Cook them on one side only. The dry, holey top is what grips the filling and lets the seams seal shut. Keep them under a cloth as you go and never stack them: uncovered they dry out and crack when you fold them, stacked they stick.
3
Fill each with walnuts and cinnamon, keeping the filling well clear of the rim, and pinch the edges firmly into sealed half-moons.
✎ Chef’s note
The other classic filling is sweet white cheese, akawi soaked overnight in several changes of cold water to draw the salt out, squeezed dry and scented with orange blossom. A pinch of ground mahlab in the batter is the Gaza touch.
4
Fry until golden on both sides, then dip the hot qatayef for a few seconds into cooled sugar syrup made with the sugar, water, lemon juice and orange blossom, and drain on a rack.
✎ Chef’s note
Hot pastry into cool syrup. The other way round and they go soggy instead of drinking just enough.
5
Scatter with ground pistachios or walnuts and serve.
✎ Chef’s note
For atayef asafiri, the little birds, make the pancakes half the size, seal only half the rim, spoon thick ashta cream into the open side, dip the cream edge in ground pistachio and skip the frying entirely.
Palestinian Ramadan tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
West Bank. Maqluba means upside down, and the pot is turned out in one piece so that the fried aubergine or cauliflower lining the base ends up on top. The dish is older than it looks, appearing in Baghdad cookbooks as far back as the thirteenth century.
🗺️
Palestine. Maqluba is old enough to appear in thirteenth-century Baghdad cookbooks, so the upside-down turn is not a recent trick. Several dishes compete for the title of national dish here, which is why it is better to say a dish is often considered one than to declare it. Za'atar, the thyme-sumac-sesame mix, is made at home and differs family to family.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Palestine
MusakhanSumac-and-onion roasted chicken over olive-oil-soaked taboon bread, showered with toasted pine nuts, Palestine on a platter.
Labneh with Za'atarThick strained yogurt swirled with olive oil and za'atar, scooped with warm taboon bread.
MaftoulHand-rolled Palestinian couscous simmered with chicken and chickpeas in a warmly spiced broth, a warming village dish.
Browse all Palestine recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender.
Storing it: Best fresh and hot. Keep batter covered in the fridge for up to a day, and rewarm cooked ones in a dry pan.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Qatayef?
Little stuffed pancakes filled with sweet walnuts, fried or baked and soaked in syrup, the classic sweet of Ramadan.
Where does Qatayef come from?
Qatayef is a Palestinian dish from West Bank, Palestine.
Can Qatayef be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Qatayef recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Qatayef safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Qatayef take to make?
About 65 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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