Easter Recipe - Dubai Chocolate Nests

Dubai Chocolate Easter Nests made by Jenny Sheahan

Easter is nearly here again - that magical holiday when devouring your body weight in chocolate isn't just acceptable, it's encouraged. No last-minute shopping panic, no hosting pressure, and no slaving away over a perfect turkey. My favourite Easter activity is to potter about the kitchen finding new and increasingly delicious Easter recipes involving chocolate.

The Dubai Chocolate Craze

By now you've surely heard about Dubai chocolate, that viral sensation from Fix Chocolatiers in Dubai. If you've tried it, you know it's absolutely divine. The genius is in that perfect sweet-savoury balance of pistachio cream and tahini filling. But what truly sent this treat viral is that incredible texture - smooth, creamy filling combined with crispy baked kataifi pastry for the most satisfying crunch imaginable, all wrapped in chocolate. Pure heaven.

With just four simple ingredients, I decided to play around with an Easter twist - cute little nests made from baked kataifi, filled with that irresistible pistachio-tahini mixture, drizzled with chocolate, and topped with mini eggs. Crunchy and absolutely delicious!

Below are the amounts I used for one nest, which you can scale up depending on how many you want to make. Don’t worry about being too spot on with the measurements - with minimal baking required here there is a lot of wiggle room. It may look like there are a lot of steps here, but I promise you this is simple to make!

Ingredients (per nest - scale as needed)

• 15g Kataifi pastry
• 5g butter (I like salted but either is fine)
• 10g granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon light tahini (dark works too, but affects the colour)
• 1 tablespoon pistachio cream
• Chocolate mini-eggs
• 25g chocolate (repurposed Easter eggs work perfectly!)

Kitchen Gear

• Muffin tray

Where to Find Ingredients

Kataifi pastry (a string pastry that crisps up beautifully) can be found in Asian supermarkets - or online at asiamarket.ie. Pistachio cream is available in most supermarkets, or make your own by blending pistachios, milk, butter, white chocolate, and sugar.

Method

1. Take the kataifi pastry out of the fridge and bring to room temperature.
2. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
3. Soften the butter.
4. Gently separate the strands of the kataifi pastry so there are no clumps.
5. Coat the pastry with the butter using your fingers.
6. Shape the butter and kataifi mixture into nest shapes in your muffin tray.
7. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and crispy throughout.
8. Make a simple syrup by mixing the sugar with an equal amount of water, then bringing to the boil while stirring until dissolved.
9. Removing from heat and set aside.
10. Once baked, remove the nests from the muffin tray and drizzle with the simple syrup and allow to cool.
11. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie or in the microwave in 10 second bursts, stirring in between.
12. Pour or brush a layer of melted chocolate inside each nest and chill in the fridge.
13. Mix pistachio cream and tahini together - I like to add a sprinkle of salt here.
14. Fill the chocolate-lined nests with your pistachio-tahini mixture.
15. Drizzle more melted chocolate on top.
16. Top with mini eggs as decoration - you can add a sprinkle of crushed pistachios if you like too.

Happy crunching!

PS: If the above sounds like too much work, check out the “Dubai Dream” Easter Egg from the divine Grá Chocolates in Galway - decadent and delicious with no baking required!