Dubai Chocolate with Pistachio Lives Up to the Hype
What makes it so soft and addictive?
Coachella vloggers kept raving about these Dubai chocolate and pistachio ice cream bars, so, when I saw a chocolate-bar version at HomeGoods of all places, my curiosity was piqued.
Of course the universe listened, and promptly showed me FoodLand Market’s Instagram story the very next day, featuring more — Kadayif Chocolate with Pistachio squares. The next weekend, my husband and I picked up two to try.
We left them in the fridge overnight, expecting the chocolate squares to get hard, but they weren’t; they were strangely bendy, like taffy. They also contained crispy bits I assumed were Rice Krispies. Nope, much better…they were shredded filo strands.
I looked up Dubai chocolate on Wikipedia, and it got a lot more interesting:
“Dubai chocolate is made from milk chocolate and is filled with a sweet cream made from pistachios mixed with finely chopped kadayif and tahini paste.[1] The presentation of the pistachios varies between being a paste and merely finely ground.[2]”
The invention is recent, born of necessity — a pregnant chocolatier’s cravings — and quickly catching on with TikTok users, becoming a worldwide sensation. As the story goes, Sarah Hamouda, the Dubai-based British-Egyptian mind behind Fix Dessert Chocolatier (or her partner), decided in 2021 to whip up chocolate bars with unconventional fillings.
Filling up chocolate bars also served to cut costs of producing and sourcing straight cocoa and pistachio. Fix Dessert Chocolatier introduced the chocolate-pistachio bar with a catchy name, “Can’t Get Knefeh of It,” a play on a traditional Arabian dessert using spun filo dough.
The product is a social media sensation for a reason, as the company made sure to appeal to popular influencers to spread the word — a low-budget, genius move. The chocolate’s bright-green interior aided in the viral visuals.
Now, it’s everywhere.
Once I got over the soft texture, I couldn’t stop eating it. I could’ve easily polished off a box of 12 in one sitting. I’d much rather have one of these than a solid Hershey bar, tbh.
Not everything online is as great as they say. But in this case, I stand corrected.
If you ever have a chance to visit your own neighborhood FoodLand Market, look for these chocolate-pistachio bars. You won’t be disappointed.