Kunafa Cheesecake: Where Athens Meets Alexandria

A baked cheesecake with a crust of crisp kunafa threads and a syrup finish. The story of a dessert that could only have been invented in a Greek-Egyptian kitchen, and how Délices makes it.

Kunafa is the dessert of Egyptian celebrations: shredded pastry threads, butter, a filling, and a syrup poured on hot. Cheesecake is European and American. Put the two together in a kitchen that has cooked Greek, French and Egyptian food side by side for a hundred years and you get the kunafa cheesecake.

How it is built

The base is kunafa, the fine pastry threads, tossed in clarified butter and pressed into the tin so they bake golden and crisp. On top goes a cheesecake batter, lighter than a New York style so it does not fight the pastry. After baking, a thin sugar syrup scented with orange blossom is brushed over the top, and more toasted kunafa and pistachio finish it.

The Greek part

Greek cooking has its own syrup-soaked pastries, galaktoboureko and baklava among them, so the idea of a crisp pastry meeting a soft dairy filling under syrup is as Greek as it is Egyptian. That is the Délices kitchen in one plate: no one tradition wins.

Egyptian pastry, a Greek instinct for syrup, and a very patient oven.

When to order it

It is a Ramadan and Eid favourite, when kunafa is everywhere, and it holds up well for large tables because it is served at room temperature. For gatherings we make it in whole rounds; in the café it is cut to order.