Making TikTok’s Viral Dubai Chocolate at Home Won’t Be Easy. Here’s What You Need To Get Right
The whimsical chocolate bars with a gooey, crunchy filling are selling out all over the world. Here are some tips on how to make your own.
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Among countless food videos that dazzled on social media this year, the viral Dubai chocolate is the latest to captivate audiences around the globe. So, what exactly is it?
The hefty slabs resemble traditional chocolate bars splashed with colorful paint, and have a layer of filling, like filo pastry and pistachio cream, concealed inside. Offering bite after messy bite, the drool-inducing candy has become a social media sensation with influencers far and wide showcasing their enjoyment as they polish off a bar in ASMR videos on Instagram and TikTok.
Like so many foods that skyrocket to fame on the internet, Dubai chocolate was relatively unknown on the global stage until just a few months ago. The indulgent treat was catapulted into the spotlight when Maria Vehera, an influencer from UAE, posted a TikTok of herself devouring a bar from Dubai-based FIX Dessert Chocolatier in her car. The TikTok spread like wildfire, resulting in countless copycat videos in the months since, and sparking worldwide fascination with Dubai chocolate.
With 70+ million views to date, Vehera’s TikTok landed FIX Dessert Chocolatier plenty of international fanfare. Unfortunately, its famed product is only available to purchase in Dubai. This has led to chocolatiers around the world putting their own spin on bars, and making them accessible to a broader customer base … but many are selling out faster than they can make them.
As such, innovative home cooks have taken matters into their own hands, developing recipes for Dubai chocolate and showcasing them on social media for anyone to take a crack at. While this may be the fastest way to get your hands on a bar, Food Network’s lead recipe developer Amanda Neal admits that crafting your own Dubai chocolate can be an ambitious task.
“Chocolate bars are not the easiest dessert to make at home,” says Neal. “Properly coating the mold in chocolate, and filling the bar with the perfect amount of filling is hard in itself, but the most important and technical step is using tempered chocolate.”
The process of tempering involves heating and cooling the chocolate to stabilize it for preparation in confections. Neal explains that this is what gives chocolate its “snap” and prevents it from melting upon touch or in warm conditions. She recommends candy melts as an alternative, but not without warning. “They will not come close in flavor to traditional tempered chocolate.”
But for those who want to try their hand at tempering chocolate at home, here’s our guide.
Despite its level of difficulty, Neal can wholly understand why people simply can’t wait to get a taste of Dubai chocolate. “The bar that went viral was filled with knafeh, a traditional Arabic dessert made with shredded pastry, pistachios, sweet soft cheese and syrup,” she says. “The super gooey, luscious fillings are unique to other chocolate bars.”
Neal encourages home cooks to get just as adventurous with their own fillings. “Any sort of chopped nut, caramel sauce, shredded coconut, or jam would be delicious,” she says, cautioning that the filling should not be too wet, or leak excess liquid.
How long the craze for Dubai chocolate will last remains to be seen. But the union between chocolate and gooey, crunchy fillings has long proven to be an everlasting one, so we’re guessing these hearty bars are here to stay.
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