Atayef

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Atayef – sweet mini stuffed pancakes

Atayef is probably the one food which is most associated with the celebrations of Ramadan in Egypt.  During the Holy month of Fasting you see it in all the streets being sold in carts, along with raw kornafa pastry.

So what is atayef?

What is atayef?  Well basically it’s very similar to a stuffed mini pancake, filled with chopped nuts or dried fruit. I think my favourite stuffing is a combination of chopped walnuts and dried apricot.

Until very recently I didn’t think I actually liked them that much. But then I was given some which had just been cooked about an hour earlier. To my surprise it was absolutely delicious and incredibly moreish. 

So, be warned don’t make atayef intending people to eat them a couple of days later. If you let them hang around for a couple of days they won’t be good.   With Atayef FRESH is Definitely BEST.

This recipe makes about 30

Ingredients

For the pancakes:

• 1 cup plain flour
• ½ cup fine semolina
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp instant yeast
• 2 tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

For your filling:

• ½ cup of finely chopped nuts or dried fruit and nut mix

To make the sugar syrup:

• 2 cups water
• 2 ½ cups sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice or 1 tsp cinnamon – you choose

Method

Now, let’s start the pancakes.

Put all the dry ingredients for the pancakes into a large bowl and mix.

Add all the wet ingredients and whisk together.

Leave the atayef batter in a warm place for 30 minutes

Cover the bowl with a towel or cling film and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. The yeast will make your atayef batter bubble a little.

Heat up your frying pan

Use a non-stick frying pan to cook your atayef. First heat the pan up, over a medium flame.

Fry your atayef baby pancakes only on ONE side

Using a tablespoon scoop up some batter and drop it into the pan to create little circles about 8cm across. Create 3 or 4 little circles depending on the size of your pan.

Lots of little bubbles will appear as the atayef cooks.  When these bubbles dry out and are no longer shiny then your atayef is cooked – this normally takes a couple of minutes.  DO NOT flip your pancake it only gets cooked on one side.

Remove your atayef from the pan straight away and lay in a single layer on a plate.

Repeat the process until all your batter is used up.

Now it’s time to stuff your atayef!

You can use just nuts or a fruit and nut mix.  A mixture of chopped walnuts with dried apricots is my favourite.

Lay an atayef, bubble side up, on the palm of your hand and lay a teaspoon of your filling in the centre of the pancake.

Fold and seal your atayef

Fold the pancake over to form a half moon and then just using your thumb, index finger and middle finger pinch the edge of the pancake together to seal it. 

*You don’t need milk or egg or anything else just the pancake alone will seal together when it’s pinched.

Fry your atayef

Heat about 1cm of oil in a frying pan.

Gently lower about 4 or 5 atayef into the oil and fry them until they are beautifully crisp and golden brown. 

They fry very quickly – I tend to turn them over about every 30 seconds just to make sure they don’t brown too much.

Once fried take them out of the oil immediately and lay them on a plate.  Repeat the process until all your Atayef are fried.

Drizzle your syrup over the Atayef and allow them to bathe in the syrup and soak it up a little before serving.

I do hope you enjoy making Atayef and sharing them with friends and family.

Let me know how you get on and send me some of your photos to share with our community.

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