Dubai Chocolate Covered Strawberries Recipe

We can't really blame the internet for being obsessed with everything Dubai chocolate: It's exactly as good as it sounds, and even more versatile than you think. Dubai chocolate is a candy bar made out of dark chocolate, pistachio cream, and crispy threads of phyllo dough called kataifi, which give the creamy filling its signature crunchy bite. Sweet, nutty, and rich, the candy bar became a viral sensation almost instantly after being dreamed up by a pregnant woman in Dubai, the chocolate bar's famous namesake. Now, the crunchy-sweet pairing has snuck its way into all kinds of desserts, turning up in everything from brownies to cheesecake layered with decadence.

Chocolate-covered strawberries get the Dubai treatment in this recipe written with developer Michelle McGlinn. Stuffed with white-chocolate-pistachio cream and kataifi strands before being dipped into glossy melted chocolate, the strawberries are layered with texture and flavor that make the sweet red berries even more special. What's better is that the dessert takes hardly any time to make, even from scratch. If you were looking for a reason to treat yourself — or a loved one — to something extra special, this recipe is a good place to start.

To make pistachio cream, you'll first need raw, shelled pistachios, powdered sugar, and salt. You'll also need milk (whole, preferably), a high-quality white chocolate for melting, and butter. You'll also need a small amount of kataifi, which can be ordered online or found in grocery stores with Middle Eastern imports. All you need from there is the classic chocolate-covered strawberry ingredients: Large, firm strawberries and high-quality dark chocolate for melting.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil over medium heat.

Add ½ cup pistachios and boil for 3 minutes.

Remove the pistachios and drain them on a paper towel.

Use the paper towel to rub the skins off the pistachios.

Transfer them to a blender with the powdered sugar and salt.

In the drained saucepan, add the white chocolate, milk, and butter over medium-low heat.

Melt, stirring constantly, until smooth.

Add the chocolate mixture to the blender with the pistachios. Blend until smooth, scraping the sides as needed.

In a small bowl, combine the pistachio cream with the kataifi.

Hull the strawberries.

Using a piping bag, fill the strawberries with the pistachio cream mixture.

Finely chop the remaining 2 tablespoons of pistachios.

Bring a small pot of water to a simmer over medium heat.

Place a bowl with the dark chocolate over the water and melt, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Dip each strawberry into the chocolate, then place them on a parchment-lined sheet.

Immediately sprinkle with the chopped pistachios.

Add the strawberries to the refrigerator to set, about 20 minutes, then serve.

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Pistachio cream is easy to make with a blender and can then be used for a variety of recipes. Despite the name, pistachio cream is the texture of butter, much like almond or peanut butter, and though it's easy enough to make, it's a little more involved than making other nut butters. Because it involves blanching and peeling pistachios as well as melting and blending chocolate, sugar, and milk, it requires a few extra steps. These steps shouldn't be skipped, though: Blanching is important in removing the brown, papery skins and not only smoothing the texture of the pistachio cream, but also ensuring it is bright green. As for melting the chocolate, you can shortcut this by melting it in the microwave, but be sure to use short intervals to avoid burning the chocolate.

When blending the pistachios into a smooth cream, you may notice that the cream stays chunky, with larger pieces of pistachios sprinkled throughout. If you want a smoother pistachio cream, you will need a smaller blender — or to double the recipe. In a large blender, the blades spread the pistachios across the bottom, causing many to remain unblended or coarsely chopped. If you don't have a smaller blender or enough ingredients to double the batch, don't worry: Because the cream is combined with crunchy kataifi anyway, you can use the cream as-is, without blending to a completely smooth paste. Another option is to simply buy the cream store-bought from a store like Costco. 

Kataifi, also often known as kadaif, kadayifi, or knafeh, is a shredded phyllo dough that is cooked on a hot plate until crispy, then bundled together and used for desserts in Middle Eastern cuisine. Besides Dubai chocolate, kataifi is most notably used for an Egyptian dessert called knafeh, which layers the crispy strands with filling and syrup and is topped with crushed pistachio. Kataifi has a completely unique texture that is both crunchy and airy but also incredibly thin and wispy, making it hard to substitute for other, possibly easier-to-find items.

Because of its shelf-stable nature, kataifi can be ordered online. It can technically be made from scratch, too, with simple pantry ingredients like flour, sugar, and butter. In fact, it's fairly easy to make at home, provided you have a pastry bag, a hot skillet, and some patience for piping the thin strands. With the kataifi made (or bought), you can then make your own Dubai chocolate bars at home.

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