Without a doubt, the Dubai chocolate has had the internet in a chokehold. If you haven’t heard of the Dubai chocolate bar before, it’s a milk chocolate bar filled with a crispy pistachio kafaiti filling. It’s sweet with a hint of saltiness – super yummy. Even better, i’m going to show you how to make your own pistachio cream from scratch!

There are 3 main components to this dish: chocolate, pistachio cream and katifi.

1. Chocolate: I’ll be using a mixture of white and milk chocolate. The chocolate bar will be prodominently milk chocolate and i’ll be using white chocolate for the decoration. If you don’t care about how you chocolate bar looks, then you can skip the white chocolate completely, or you can also swap the milk for dark chocolate.
2. Pistachio cream: I’ll be showing you how to make your own pistachio cream at home, which i think is 100% better than store bought. However, if you don’t have the time or could not be bothered then definitely stick to the jar!
3. Kataifi: if you’ve never heard of kataifi before, it’s essentially phyllo pastry shredded up into threads. Commonly used in Middle Eastern desserts. You can find it at your local Middle Eastern grocery stores or specialty stores.

Ingredients

(for 2 chocolate bars)

400g milk chocolate, chopped
75g white chocolate, chopped
Colouring gel
150g kataifi pastry
4 tbsp butter
1 tbsp tahini

Pistachio Cream:
200g pistachio nut, without shell
1 cup milk
1 cup white chocolate chips
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup powder sugar

Method

1. Decoration: in a bain marie, gently melt down your white chocolate then divide into 2 bowls. You can colour your white chocolate with whatever colour you want; i went with white and green. With a spoon, decoratively drizzle the white chocolate into your chocolate moulds. Place into the fridge to set.
2. Chocolate Bar: meanwhile, in a bain marie, gently melt down your milk chocolate. Once melted, take out your chilled moulds and pour the milk chocolate into the moulds. Move the milk chocolate around and up the sides so every corner is covered. Then quickly tip the mould upside down to remove excess chocolate. What you should have now is a thin layer of chocolate covering the sides of your moulds. Place into the fridge to set. Keep any leftover chocolate as we will melt it again later.
3. Pistachio Cream: bring a pot of water to a boil and add in your pistachio nut for approximately 5 minutes. Drained and place onto a tea towel. Fold up the tea towel and aggresively rub the towel against the pistachios. Unfold the towel and try to remove the skin as much as possible. (removing the pistachio skin allows your final product to be vibrant green. If you don’t care about the colour of your final product then you can just leave the skin on).
4. (Pistachio Cream) In a small pot, add in the milk, white chocolate and butter and simmer while continuously stirring until the white chocolate has completely melted.
5. (Pistachio Cream) Add the skin-less pistachios into a blender and blend until the mixture is quite fine and somewhat smooth. Then add in the cream/white chocolate mixture, powder sugar and a pinch of salt into the blender and continue to blend until the mixture is smooth and silky. Set aside.
6. Kataifi Pastry: With a knife, cut up your kataifi pastry into small strings. Then in a pan over medium heat, melt the 4 tbsp of butter and add in the cut up kataifi. Toast the katifi until it’s golden and crispy.
7. Filling: In a bowl, combine your crispy kataifi with a few generous spoonfuls of the pistachio cream along with the tahini. Add more pistachio cream if the mixture is too dry. Mix well. Place the pistachio kataifi mixture into your chocolate moulds, leaving a small space at the top for more chocolate later to cover the bar.
8. If your milk chocolate has hardened by now, place it back onto the bain marie and melt it. Pour into the moulds and over the pistachio kataifi mixture to completely cover the chocolate bars. Smooth out the top with a spatula. Place in the fridge for 2 hours to set.