Pistachio Day: Ways to use viral Dubai chocolate to mark pistachios

Pistachios are having their moment in the sun. The resurgence of this nut can be traced to the crunchy yet gooey chocolate bar from a chocolatier in Dubai that went viral sometime last year. This chocolate bar has found fast fans the world over, with several brands recreating and selling their own versions of it. It is filled with thinly toasted katafi pastry, which is used to make kunafa – a Middle Eastern dessert – and mixed into luxuriant pistachio cream. This unseemingly green concoction is layered into milk or dark chocolate. Breaking into this bar to hear the satisfying crunch has been recreated by several food bloggers online.

Now, this viral Dubai chocolate trend has spawned new versions. Food influencers are adding this pistachio cream and katafi pastry mixture to everything from baked oats, brownies, strawberry cups and more.

It could’ve been worse.

Being encouraged to eat more pistachios isn’t particularly bad. This nut supports weight loss, gut health, blood sugar management and heart health. In fact, one should eat about 49-98 nuts a day, which provides lots of nutrients without adding calories.

In fact, a recent Indian study states that eating pistachios if you have Type 2 diabetes can be beneficial for your overall health. Eating 30 grams of pistachios half-an-hour before breakfast and dinner showed significant improvements in blood sugar control and much lower post-meal blood glucose levels.

Not just diabetics, even those who have poor eyesight can benefit from eating pistachios on a daily. A study from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University states that adding two ounces of unsalted, shelled, dry-roasted pistachio nuts each day for 12 weeks to your usual diet improved a person’s macular pigment optical density (MPOD).

If you’re convinced on the health benefits of the pistachios, here are some fun, easy to make desserts that you can make at home.

Modelled after the viral chocolate strawberries from Borough Market in London, these cups are layered with whole berries, melted milk chocolate and pistachio cream with kataifi pastry. A balance of textures and flavours, this dessert has the berries’ tartness and katafi’s crunch all wrapped up in chocolatey goodness.

Fudgy, crinkled or mixed in with cookies, you can never go wrong with a brownie. With food bloggers coming up with new versions of the viral Dubai Chocolate, this kunafa brownie is the next best thing that’s going viral. On your baked and cooled brownie, add a layer of the crunchy katafi-pistachio mixture. Pour on melted dark chocolate and spread it in a thin layer. Let it set in the fridge and then garnish with crushed rose petals and pistachios.

This delicate French pancake is easy and sure to impress a crowd. Several restaurants around the world are serving their version of this pistachio cream decadence. To toasted katafi pastry, add pistachio cream and give it a mix. Prepare a crepe batter that is runny enough to coat a non-stick pan. Once you’ve made a large stack of crepes, stuff the mixture into them and fold into a triangle. To make it even more luxurious, drizzle on more pistachio cream and melted white chocolate.

As baked oats made their entry into daily vocab during the pandemic, it became common to have cake for breakfast. This take on the cakey oats includes adding cocoa powder to give it a chocolate flavour. Layer the pan with the batter and the crunchy katafi pastry that’s been mixed with pistachio cream. Bake it in the oven. It is best to enjoy this gooey cake warm.

Dates stuffed with katafi and pistachios, two mainstays of the Middle East, is a match made in heaven. To make this quick pick-me-up, slice dates into half and remove the pits. Prepare the katafi mixture with the pistachio cream and stuff it into the dates. Dip the dates into melted dark chocolate and place them in a lined baking tray to set in the fridge.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindustan Times.