Znoud el-Sit

The name means a lady’s arms, and comes from the long thin shape. Filo or baklava pastry is rolled out thin, clotted cream or a set milk pudding goes along one edge, and the sheet is rolled into a finger. The rolls are fried until golden, dipped into cold syrup and lifted straight out, then scattered with crushed pistachio.

Hot pastry, cold syrup

The whole logic sits in that contrast: the pastry comes out hot, the syrup is cold. The pastry sweetens on the outside without drinking the syrup in, so it stays crisp inside. Most sweet shops put rose water or cardamom in the syrup. Timing is everything.

Where to eat it

At the sweet shops of Damascus and Aleppo, sold piece by piece off the tray. Because of the cream it wants to be fresh; a roll that has waited goes soft and the pastry turns heavy. Plain coffee alongside cuts the richness.

Do not confuse it

Across the Levant it also goes by the name Zeinab’s fingers, and it is common in Iraq as well as Syria. Halawet el-jibn is another Damascene sweet filled with cream, but its outside is a cheese dough; here it is fried pastry. They are two different sweets.