A Dubai-style chocolate experiment

When my friend Jacqui mentioned Dubai chocolate to me in July 2025, I was quite late to the party. Apparently the flavour/texture combo (chocolate + pistachios + crunch) had been around since 2021. Suddenly I started seeing it everywhere. The first block I bought was from the gorgeous Turkish Delight store in Adelaide, and variations are available in supermarkets and Asian grocery stores. Of the types I've tried, the Adelaide version tasted best, as it was not so sweet as the others, but I'd prefer an even less sweet option. This particular style of chocolate is also very expensive – ranging from about $125 to $150 per kilo – so I've been pondering how to create something similar at home.

My first thoughts were to combine Chang's Fried Noodles with pistachio paste, then coat it in melted chocolate. However, all three brands of pistachio paste/spread I found had sugar as their main ingredient (unlike, say, peanut butter which can be made of 100% peanuts) so I decided to use whole pistachios instead. The ingredients:

I melted the chocolate, then mixed in the noodles and nuts, and spread the mixture in a silicone loaf mould. (More usually used to bake things like date loaf and banana bread, but also perfect for shaping chocolate blocks, it seems!) The result:

Andrew and I taste-tested the chocolate and we liked it! These ingredients achieve the qualities I was seeking but without being cloyingly sweet (though, if I try it again ... I may use milk rather than dark chocolate). The mixture was also much cheaper than commercial versions, with the ingredients costing $20.10 for 410 grams (so about $49 per kilo). Nom nom.