The Turkish dessert made with shredded pastry, cheese, and syrup is künefe. It is a Turkish variant of the broader Middle Eastern knafeh family, especially associated with Hatay Province and the city of Antakya.
Künefe is assembled from kadayıf, a fine, thread-like pastry, wrapped around a mild, stretchy cheese. The pastry is cooked with butter until crisp, then drenched in a sugar syrup often flavored with lemon. It is typically served hot so the cheese remains soft and pullable, and pistachios are a common garnish.
A common mix-up is treating künefe and knafeh as completely separate desserts. Knafeh is the wider family name, while künefe is the Turkish form with its own regional style. Turkish künefe traditionally uses Hatay cheese and is cooked in two pastry layers around the filling. Antakya Künefesi received Protected Geographical Indication status from the European Union in 2012.