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Ashta substitute

Best substitute

Homemade cornstarch ashta

makes about 3 cups

Best for knafeh and kunafa

Close match

Two cups whole milk, one cup heavy cream, three tablespoons cornstarch, two tablespoons sugar, one teaspoon rose water and one teaspoon orange blossom water.

Other ashta substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Ashta with ratios

  1. 2Whole-milk ricotta, drained and beaten with cream

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount

    Whole-milk ricotta drained in a sieve for half an hour, then beaten with two tablespoons of cream, a tablespoon of sugar and the blossom waters.

    What changes
    Best for
    atayef, knafeh, cheese-based Levantine sweets, when you want a fast no-cook option

    Widely used and it works well, mostly because ricotta holds its shape beautifully inside a folded pastry and does not run when warm. What changes is texture and tang: ricotta is grainy where ashta is silky, and it carries a faint fresh-cheese sourness that ashta does not have. Beating it hard with the cream, or blitzing it briefly in a food processor, smooths it out significantly. Drain it first or the moisture will make the pastry soggy.

  2. 3Mascarpone loosened with milk

    Different taste

    Use the same amount thinned with 2 to 3 tablespoons milk per cup

    Mascarpone beaten with milk until spoonable, sweetened lightly and scented with rose and orange blossom water.

    What changes
    Best for
    no-cook fillings, atayef and pastry piping, desserts eaten cold, a luxurious version

    Smooth, stable and easy to pipe, which makes it a practical filling. It is considerably richer and denser than ashta, and it tastes buttery rather than milky, so a whole tray of pastries filled with it can feel heavy in a way real ashta does not. Reduce the sugar in the recipe, since mascarpone against syrup is already very rich. It also holds up better than ashta in warm rooms, which is a real advantage at a party.

  3. 4Clotted cream thinned with milk

    Different texture

    Use the same amount thinned with about 1 tablespoon milk per quarter cup

    Clotted cream slackened with a little milk and scented with blossom waters.

    What changes
    Best for
    spooning alongside pastries, small quantities, the closest dairy flavour, when you already have a jar

    The nearest match for what traditional ashta actually is, since both are made by concentrating the fat that rises off gently heated milk, and the cooked-milk flavour is right. Two caveats: clotted cream is far richer, roughly double the fat, so a filling made from it is heavy and slightly greasy in quantity, and it has no floral note unless you add one. Thin it and use a little less than the recipe calls for. Excellent as a spoonful beside a dessert, a lot in a whole knafeh.

  4. 5Stabilised whipped cream

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount

    Cream whipped to soft peaks with a tablespoon of cream cheese or a spoon of instant vanilla pudding mix beaten in to hold it, plus blossom waters.

    What changes
    Best for
    same-day desserts, topping rather than filling, the lightest version, when you have nothing but cream

    Light, quick and pleasant, and the least reliable option here. Plain whipped cream weeps within a few hours and collapses under syrup, which is why the cream cheese or pudding mix matters. Even stabilised, it is airy where ashta is dense, so a knafeh filled with it looks deflated after an hour and the pastry goes wet. Assemble and serve within the hour, or use it as a spoonful on the side instead of a filling.

  5. 6Boxed ashta or qishta mix

    Close match

    Use the same amount once prepared

    Packet mix of starch, milk powder and flavouring, sold in Middle Eastern groceries, cooked with milk.

    What changes
    Best for
    consistency and convenience, large batches for a crowd, bakery-style results, beginners

    Cheap, foolproof and much closer to what you will eat in a Lebanese pastry shop than most people expect. It is essentially the cornstarch version with the measuring already done. It sets slightly firmer and tastes a touch starchier and more uniformly sweet than a homemade one, and some brands are heavily perfumed, so taste before adding any extra rose water. If the box says to use water, use milk instead for a much better result.

What is Ashta?

Ashta is Ashta, also called qishta, kashta or ishta, is the thick mildly sweet Levantine cream used to fill knafeh, atayef and halawet el jibn, traditionally skimmed from simmering milk but usually made now by thickening milk and cream with cornstarch and scenting it with rose and orange blossom water.

Cooking tips

  • Whisk cornstarch into cold liquid, never hot. Starch added to warm milk seizes into lumps instantly and no amount of whisking recovers it fully. Combine everything cold, then heat while stirring constantly with a whisk, paying attention to the corners of the pan.
  • Cook the thickened cream for a full two minutes after it comes to a simmer. Undercooked cornstarch tastes chalky and raw and thins again as it cools, and those two minutes are the difference between a filling that slices and one that runs out of the pastry.
  • Add rose water and orange blossom water off the heat and start with less than you think. Their aroma is volatile and boils away, and both go from fragrant to soapy very quickly. Half a teaspoon of each per cup, tasted and adjusted, is safer than a full teaspoon.
  • Chill any ashta or substitute completely before filling pastries. Warm filling melts butter in kataifi or knafeh pastry and makes it limp, and it will not hold a piped shape.
  • Press cling film directly onto the surface of the cooked cream while it cools. Otherwise it forms a thick rubbery skin that has to be picked off, and stirring the skin back in leaves lumps through the filling.

Frequently asked questions

What is ashta actually made of?

Traditionally it is the skin skimmed off milk simmered slowly for hours, layered up into a thick soft cream, which is why the name is also used for clotted cream. In modern practice, including in most bakeries, it is milk and cream thickened with cornstarch and sometimes bread or semolina, then scented with rose and orange blossom water. Both are called ashta, and the starch version is what nearly every recipe means.

Can I use ricotta instead of ashta?

Yes, and it is a common swap, particularly in atayef. Drain it in a sieve for half an hour, then beat it with a couple of tablespoons of cream, a little sugar and the blossom waters. It will taste slightly tangy and feel grainier than real ashta, so blitz it briefly in a processor if you want it smooth. Its advantage is that it never runs.

Can I leave the blossom water out?

You can, and the cream will still work structurally, but it will taste plain rather than Levantine, because that floral perfume is a defining part of the flavour. If you dislike rose water, use only orange blossom water, which is gentler, or add a strip of lemon zest and a drop of vanilla instead. Leaving out the thickener, by contrast, is not optional, since the filling will simply run out of the pastry.

Is ashta the same as clotted cream?

They overlap. Traditional skimmed ashta and English clotted cream are made by the same principle of concentrating the fat that rises off gently heated milk, and clotted cream is a legitimate substitute. But clotted cream is roughly twice as rich, so it is heavy as a whole pastry filling, and modern ashta is usually a much lighter starch-thickened cream rather than pure clotted fat.

How long does homemade ashta keep?

Three to four days covered in the refrigerator. The cornstarch version can weep a little liquid after a couple of days, which you can stir back in. Do not freeze it, since starch-thickened dairy separates into a grainy watery mess on thawing and cannot be brought back.

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