Enrobed in thick dark chocolate and oozing with a crunchy pistachio cream filling, as sweet treats go, it’s certainly mouthwatering.
You can’t fail to have heard of Dubai chocolate, the viral food craze taking the internet – and indeed the nation – by storm.
But such is the popularity of the Middle Eastern-inspired bar that, chances are, you haven’t been able to get your hands on one to taste it.
The latest middle-class must-have, it’s been dubbed ‘the Hermès bag of chocolate’.
At Lidl, where £3.99 Dubai chocolate bars hit the shelves this week, shoppers reportedly queued for hours to grab one, after 6,000 on the supermarket’s TikTok shop sold out in 72 minutes.
Waitrose, which started selling the £10 Lindt versions last month, had to impose a two-bar limit to stop bulk-buying.
Meanwhile, on eBay, bars sell for up to £23.
The snack has also got the A-list seal of approval from stars including actress Millie Bobby Brown and Brooklyn Beckham, who cooked up his own version at home.
Such is the popularity of the Middle Eastern-inspired Dubai chocolate bar that, chances are, you haven’t been able to get your hands on one to taste it (file pic)
Waitrose, which started selling the £10 Lindt version last month, had to impose a two-bar limit to stop bulk-buying
On TikTok, there are more than 150 million videos about the chocolate, while on Instagram you’ll find 500,000 posts with the hashtag #dubaichocolate.
So what’s all the fuss about? And is it worth the eye-watering price tag?
Chocolate consultant Jennifer Earle says the Dubai version is the biggest trend in sweet flavours since salted caramel, which dominated the market back in 2008.
The secret, she says, is in the pistachio paste, used in the filling, which gives the bar its distinctive green-hued centre.
Frankly, that filling doesn’t look very appetising – a gloopy, grassy mulch of paste and pastry – but it’s the combination of texture and taste that matters, explains Jennifer.
Far from being produced by a gourmet chocolatier or celebrated chef, the bar has surprisingly humble origins.
Sarah Hamouda, 39, a British-Egyptian woman based in Dubai, dreamt it up while pregnant when she began craving the ‘knafeh’ dessert her mother used to make – but in the form of a chocolate bar.
After perfecting her recipe with Paris-trained Nouel Catis Omamalin, she set up an online shop, Fix Dessert Chocolatier, to sell the bars.
They began sending samples to social media influencers. Several videos – including one which racked up 121 million views – went viral, and 30,000 orders flooded in overnight.
The excitement surrounding the UK launch has been extraordinary.
Experts compare nabbing a bar to getting your hands on a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s factory.
Fix now boasts almost 400,000 TikTok followers and more than 1.5 million likes – but with delivery only available in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and orders capped at 500 per day, you’ll have to look elsewhere if you want to try one.
With both my local Lidl and Waitrose sold out, this is easier said than done. You can, of course, buy Dubai chocolate on Amazon, eBay and from the Lindt shop online – but a quick look at the packets suggests it’s easy (and surely cheaper) to make my own.
I start by picking up some ingredients – which you won’t find in your local supermarket – and looking up a recipe online.
I order a jar of pistachio paste for £13.25 and a box of kadayif, or shredded filo pastry, for £13.99 from Amazon, which the recipe tells me will make two large bars.
I also need a silicone chocolate mould (£8.49 for two suitably chunky ones).
Then, it’s off to the shops for dark chocolate, white chocolate, coconut oil, butter and tahini – which comes to £27.94.
I’m down £63.67 – or £31.84 per bar – and I haven’t even started cooking.
Perhaps the supermarket price tags aren’t as extortionate as they seem.
First, I toast 150g of kadayif in a pan with 60g butter.
You can buy it ready-toasted – or substitute it with the cheaper cereal, Shredded Wheat.
When cool, I mix it in a bowl with 360g of pistachio paste, 20g of tahini and a pinch of salt. This is the filling.
Next, I melt 30g of white chocolate with a teaspoon of coconut oil (this thins it as it melts) and splatter it over the inside of the mould.
The original recipe – and Sarah Hamouda’s version – uses green and pink chocolate to create a design, but any contrasting colour will do.
This goes in the fridge to set.
Next, I melt 500g of good-quality dark chocolate and spread half in the mould.
This goes back in the fridge, before I dollop in the pistachio pastry mixture and press it down with a palette knife.
Once more into the fridge, before the remaining dark chocolate is spread over the filling.
I leave my bar overnight in the fridge so it’s properly set, before pressing it out of the mould.
It is huge – more of a dessert than a chocolate bar – but utterly delicious.
The bitter chocolate breaks neatly to reveal a creamy, oozy, filling, packed with toasty pastry which crunches pleasingly when I bite into it.
At Lidl, where £3.99 Dubai chocolate bars hit shelves this week, shoppers reportedly queued for hours to grab one after 6,000 on the supermarket’s TikTok shop sold out in 72 minutes
It’s nutty, rich and probably the most indulgent thing ever to come out of my kitchen. Making it was quick, easy and it’ll last an entire week.
The downside? It’s taken half my weekly shopping budget to make a single bar.
It may taste fabulous, but even this devoted chocoholic can’t justify that.