Candy pros, what did I do wrong?!

[boufa06]

Ayrton,

You are right about the confusion deriving from the name 'kataifi.' It is surely used for both the dough as well as the concoctions made out of it. Perhaps the dough (which is indeed extruded as you guessed) should be called 'fillo kataifi' but this is rarely the case and for good reason as 'fillo' means 'sheet' in Greek and kataifi does not match this description at all. Concerning the finished product, it is indeed baklavas filling wrapped in kataifi dough and dipped in essentially the same syrup as baklavas.

Contrary to kataifi, the baklavas dough is called 'fillo kroustas' in Greek with the latter word meaning nothing that I or DH can trace. However, it does serve to create a clear distinction between the names of raw material and finished product in the case of baklavas. You said it correctly, go figure!

 

[XeniA]

Just in case anyone's still watching this thread, I owe it to Boufa to state publicly that if my husband's an authority (which he may be, but don't tell him that as I'll never hear the end of it), she's very right about "kataifi" being the name of a sweet here in Greece, and not just the name of the dough from which it's made (which is also called "kataifi").

I don't want to mislead anybody visiting who'd like to sample this thing: go into any bakery and ask for "kataifi" and you'll get what Boufa has both described and pictured. If you like baklava, you'll love this!

However, if you want to MAKE kataifi -- or the bourma which started this thread -- you need to go instead to someplace they sell doughs and ask for the same thing. Then you'll get what I was talking about -- the raw dough which is made up of almost thread-like strings.

My lack of knowledge about this came from me never having bought the sweet kataifi and instead having made stuff with the dough. Learn something new every day? Thank you Boufa!

 

[boufa06]

You are most welcome Ayrton!

 

[college_cook]

Letscook-I thought sugar was sugar. I always buy the store brand and never have any problems with any candy, cookies, etc. It is the first time i have ever heard that a brand of sugar makes a deference in a recipe.

sugar is sugar if you're just buying regular white granulated. The supermarkets outsource the bagging and labeling to the name brand companies, and its exactly the same product. This applies to most other products that carry the supermarket name as well.

Generally, the only time this doesn't apply is when you products where the quality can differ significantly between name brands.