One of the internet’s favorite ways to chocolate
One of the hottest food trends right now is Dubai-style chocolate. Originating in Dubai in 2021, it consists of high-end dark chocolate, pistachio paste or cream, kadayif (shredded crispy filo dough) and tahini (sesame puree). Some over-the-top brands include gold leaf.
Jaime Metzger is the manager of Granite State Candy Shoppe’s Manchester store. She first became aware of Dubai chocolate in 2024.
“I think it started to become a big trend on TikTok or YouTube or both last summer,” she said. “It started to pop up all over the place and it became a craze. It became a trend like all these new things and people were asking for it. Then it kind of fizzled like trends do, and we thought it was over, but then it came back again.”
Because of the cost of ingredients and uncertainty over how long there would be demand for it, many chocolate manufacturers have been slow to adopt Dubai chocolate, Metzger said. “Actually, for the Made in New Hampshire Expo,” she said, “we made Dubai berries. They were cut strawberries with a pistachio filling, chocolate and [kadayif], the shredded filo sprinkled on top. It was a huge hit. [Our chocolatiers] are in the process of working on a Dubai bar. They just want to do experiments to find out its shelf life, how long it’s going to last.”
One of the complications of producing a Dubai chocolate bar stems from very particular labeling regulations, Metzger said.
“Traditionally,” she explained, “the filling has tahini in it. But apparently anything with sesame paste has to have a very specific label … saying what it contains.” The usual labels apparently won’t meet the regulatory requirements, she said.
Trina Bird is the head baker at Lighthouse Local in Bedford. She agrees that Dubai chocolate has come on the scene fairly recently.
“To be honest,” Bird said, “it’s been kind of a specialty thing until recently, when people started picking up on it.”
Bird said figuring out Lighthouse Local’s pistachio filling was the longest part of working up a house recipe for a Dubai chocolate candy.
“A lot of people use pistachio cream,” she explained, “but there’s also pistachio paste, which is all-natural, literally just pistachios, salt and a bit of oil. Pistachio cream typically has sugar in it or white chocolate, which gives it a sweet creaminess. At first I was trying to make it with just the pistachio paste because I didn’t want to buy the cream, which is full of ingredients I don’t like. But then what I figured out is I can buy the paste, which is very expensive but it’s all natural, and then our chocolatier can whip me up some white chocolate and I will drizzle that in as I build an emulsion, and that gives it what people want they want, that sweet spreadability, and then I mix it with the kadayif.”
Bird said that while pistachios get the lion’s share of the attention in a Dubai chocolate, the real hero is the kadayif, which gives it some needed texture.
“The filo has a really crunchy texture,” she said, “with really tiny, crunched up little pieces. You can buy it like that already done, which is expensive, or you can buy it frozen in big long strands, and then when it comes, we have to toast it on the stove and chop it up, and then it takes a little bit longer, but it’s also much cheaper.”
Aside from the actual Dubai chocolate itself, Bird said the combination of chocolate, pistachio, and tahini lends itself to many Dubai-inspired baked goods. “We made a Dubai chocolate doughnut, and people loved it. So we’ll make Dubai cake pops, scones, anything you can put pistachios and crunchy bits in.”
Featured photo: Dubai chocolate at Lighthouse Local in Bedford. Photo by John Fladd.
