Kataifi (Καταΐφι)
Fine shredded phyllo wrapped around cinnamon-spiced walnuts, baked until deep golden and crackling crisp, then soaked in a fragrant honey-orange syrup. One of the great Greek pastry-shop sweets, worth making at home.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Make the nut filling
In a bowl, mix the chopped walnuts with the cinnamon, cloves, sugar and orange zest until evenly combined. Set aside; this fragrant mixture is the heart of every roll.
- 300 g walnuts
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 orange zest
✅ Done when: the walnuts look evenly coated and smell fragrant with spice
Loosen the strands
Unroll the pastry onto a work surface and gently pull the strands apart with your fingers so they separate loosely instead of staying clumped. Keep the pile covered with a slightly damp kitchen towel at all times, since the thin strands dry out and turn brittle within minutes of being exposed to air.
- 450 g pastry
✅ Done when: the strands separate easily and feel soft and pliable, not dry or crumbly
Fill and roll
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Bake until crisp
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Make the syrup
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Soak and rest
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Make the nut filling
In a bowl, mix the chopped walnuts with the cinnamon, cloves, sugar and orange zest until evenly combined. Set aside; this fragrant mixture is the heart of every roll.
- 300 g walnuts
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 orange zest
✅ Done when: the walnuts look evenly coated and smell fragrant with spice
Loosen the strands
Unroll the pastry onto a work surface and gently pull the strands apart with your fingers so they separate loosely instead of staying clumped. Keep the pile covered with a slightly damp kitchen towel at all times, since the thin strands dry out and turn brittle within minutes of being exposed to air.
- 450 g pastry
✅ Done when: the strands separate easily and feel soft and pliable, not dry or crumbly
Fill and roll
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Bake until crisp
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Make the syrup
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Soak and rest
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The Story Behind the Dish
Kataifi belongs to the same family of syrup-soaked nut pastries as baklava, and its name comes from the fine, hair-like phyllo strands used to wrap the filling. Like much of Greek pastry-shop sweets, it developed under Ottoman influence, when similar shredded-dough desserts were made across the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans.
In Greece it became a fixture of the zacharoplasteio, the neighbourhood pastry shop, sold by the tray and cut into portions, as well as a festive dessert for name days and holidays.
⭐ Why It's Famous
The contrast between the crisp, buttery strands and the soft, honeyed walnut filling inside makes kataifi one of the most texturally satisfying sweets in Greek baking.
💡 Fun Fact
The same shredded dough is called kadayıf in Turkish and is used across the Middle East for both sweet rolls like this one and savoury or cheese-filled versions.
Greece, especially Thessaly, Macedonia and Constantinople-influenced bakeries
37.98°N, 23.73°E
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