Matt Preston shares how to make Dubai chocolate - How To

May 06, 2025

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Every 10 years or so, a new chocolate comes along that captures the public’s imagination. And so it has been with Dubai chocolate. This has been an internet sensation for the last 12 months, with the public frenzy seeing 200g bars changing hands for as much as $40 each!

This chocolate was originally inspired in 2021 by the Middle East’s love of the crispy toasted pastry threads of kataifi. This was combined with pistachio paste for a chocolate filling that feels luxe, but is claimed to cost less to produce than a solid chocolate bar in these days of soaring cocoa prices.

Now, I am as notorious for being a tight-arse as I am for being a pistachio obsessive, so the outrageous cost of this must-have chocolate bar caused me a problem. Hence the desire to make it at home, for a cheaper price.

In my experiments, I found that not all pistachio pastes are created equal. Be prepared to pay $25 or more for a decent jar. In retrospect, it would have been cheaper to grind my own paste, which would have been a bit of palaver, but also would have pretty much halved the cost. The kataifi and the butter to fry it in only accounted for a few dollars.

The next issue was silicon chocolate moulds to make a bar. These only cost a few bucks, but require pre-planning to order. And finally, you need to temper your chocolate, which is much easier if you have a kitchen thermometer. This is another cost, but I reckon these are essential for any kitchen to ensure you don’t overcook steak, or risk poisoning your friends and family with undercooked chicken…

I couldn’t wait for the silicon moulds to arrive, as the pistachio paste was strangely evaporating in the fridge (insert guilty-looking emoji here). You can judge me, but only once you try this paste on a crumpet with a little salt? So delicious, so addictive. Instead, I used a few silicon loaf and dome moulds. This made for chunkier bars, but this wasn’t a bad thing.

The best result of my experiments was a slab of Dubai chocolate that weighed about 500g and cost about $40 to make. It could be carved into thick slices with a warm bread knife and eclipsed a shop-bought bar in a blind tasting with my family. The only thing I would have done is increase the ratio of pistachio paste to pastry for a better colour and more pronounced pistachio taste.

Dubai chocolate blocks — Blocks of Dubai chocolate

I also tried the same approach with grinding up cheaper nuts like walnuts and almonds with tahini. (You could use hazelnuts, pecans or a combo of whatever is left in little packets in your pantry). These nuts are between half and a third the price of pistachios. These made half a dozen glossy shelled chocolate domes, which you can see on my Insta feed at @mattscravat. As the delicate crunch of the buttery toasted pastry is as much the attraction of Dubai chocolate as the pistachios for me, I think this a very acceptable and much cheaper alternative – $20 per 500g.

Next up, I’m working with the team at food charity Alex Makes Meals to make a Dubai chocolate tart for a fundraising dinner event, ‘Feast to Feed’, on May 17 in Melbourne. I’ll let you know how that goes, but initial indicators are very good, if very rich!