Dubai Chocolate Stuffed Cookies

Crunchy pistachio and kataifi filling hidden inside a thick chocolate cookie.

Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time13 mins
Total Time1 hr 43 mins
Yield12 large cookies
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Before You Start

The pistachio and crispy pastry filling from the viral chocolate bar, tucked inside a cookie instead. The filling is the whole point: toast the shredded kataifi pastry until it's properly golden, because that crunch is what everyone remembers. If you can't find kataifi, crushed shredded wheat gets you surprisingly close.

Instructions

0 of 6 done

  1. Chop the kataifi into short lengths and toast it in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring often, until it's deep golden and smells like toast, 6 to 8 minutes. Let it cool.

  2. Stir the toasted pastry into the pistachio butter and tahini with a pinch of salt. Spoon 12 mounds onto a lined plate and freeze for 30 minutes until firm.

  3. Beat the butter with both sugars for 2 minutes, then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, then the chopped chocolate.

  4. Take a heaped scoop of dough, flatten it in your palm, sit a frozen pistachio mound in the middle, and pinch the dough closed around it. Roll into a ball. Repeat.

  5. Chill the filled balls for 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 180°C / 350°F and line two trays.

  6. Bake six at a time for 11 to 13 minutes. They'll look underdone in the centre and that's exactly right. Cool on the tray for 10 minutes so the filling sets enough to hold.

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💡 Baker's tips

  • Freeze the filling properly. If it's soft when you wrap it, it leaks out of the seam and burns on the tray.
  • Toast the kataifi darker than feels comfortable. Pale pastry goes soggy inside the cookie within an hour.

🔀 Make it your own

  • Use Biscoff spread with the toasted pastry instead of pistachio for a caramel version.
  • Skip the cookie entirely, press the filling into a lined tin between two layers of melted chocolate, and chill for the original bar.

📦 Storing & freezing

Airtight at room temperature for 3 days, though the crunch is best on day one. Freeze the filled raw balls and bake from frozen, adding 3 minutes.

❓ Frequently asked

What can I use instead of kataifi pastry?

Crushed shredded wheat cereal or broken vermicelli noodles, both toasted in butter first. Neither is identical but they give you the same crisp shatter.

How many grams is a cup of cocoa powder?

About 85 g per US cup, so the ¼ cup here is roughly 21 g. Cocoa packs down easily, so spoon it in rather than scooping.

Baking in a different unit? Use the cups ↔ grams converter or the recipe scaler to halve or double this recipe.

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