Dubai Chocolate + an INCREDIBLE cookie

Plus some twists in London, Leicester and Miami.

hello!

I had one of the best cookies of my life recently.

Quite the claim.

I had two truly impressive cookies in Australia in January, too, which I will get to writing about in a future week. I figure there probably aren’t many of you reading this that are in Australia, or planning to go, so it’s a little less urgent?

I don’t even like cookies that much. Well, more that most of the ones places sell are too sweet for me. I do love a good cookie.

Before the cookie, I thought I’d tell all of you about two things:

Firstly, I’ve set a date for the paid subscriber live online hang out with me and

Alexina

of Small Wins : 8pm UK time next Monday 10th March. 🎉 The joining link will be sent to paid subscribers 24 hours before.

You can pick Alexina’s brain about what it was like being on Masterchef, writing two cookbooks, running supper clubs, where she loves to eat… all the things. She’s a lot of fun so I’m sure it’ll be a good chat.

The next meet up after that is a small group of us meeting on Sunday 27th April to taste chocolate and then I’m thinking it might be nice to do a summer picnic meet up in London, too? Maybe in early July?

If you fancy joining us and also getting to come along to these community events then it’s just £49 for the year, which includes access to 150+ articles in the archive, my hit-list Google map with pins around the world, and all of the city guides I’ve published here. You can also join by the month just for the event months.

I might be writing to you again this week about my Saturday 29th March announcement - please keep saving the date / book your tickets to London!

And secondly:

a great example of Dubai chocolate

I have another example from another chocolatier in my house that I think I’ll be telling you about from personal experience soon - once I try it! - but in the meantime, you can get this one at London Chocolate, an 8 minute walk from Marble Arch, or ask nicely and they might post it to you.

This is a mini version of it:

What is Dubai Chocolate?

In 2021, British-Egyptian Sarah Hamouda moved to Dubai with her family. She started making chocolate bars, then selling them under the name Fix Dessert Chocolatier. At the end of 2023 a bar she had created and named “Can’t Get Knafeh of It” with pistachio paste and kataifi pastry (a little like shredded filo pastry and used in the Knafeh dessert).

I spoke about the kataifi (also called kadaif or Kataify) on my podcast back in 2022 here in relation to Honey & Co’s special cheesecake:

The “Dubai Chocolate” went viral on TikTok in December 2023 and a year later had 100 million views having picked up again. It gets called Dubai chocolate because it was invented there and the flavour combination has popped up all over the world in muffins and hot drinks and more, as well as copies of the bar.

Quality is so important here, folks. I’ve had some truly awful versions, including at chocolate shows.

If you’re not into the idea of Pistachio and Kataify pastry you can be assured that there are other delicious treats at London Chocolate, all made using their house-made bean to bar chocolate. The best chocolates - in my opinion - are made with great quality chocolate, better still with chocolate from craft, bean to bar chocolate makers.

Here’s an old video I made of inside London Chocolate:

thenextdeliciousthing

A post shared by @thenextdeliciousthing

This was before they were doing filled chocolates. Sadly you won’t find this chocolate cake or cookie anymore, but the hot chocolate is still as good. I tested it again this week, just to make sure. 😘

📌 17 Connaught St, St George's Fields, London W2 2AY

🚆 Marble Arch

More “Dubai” chocolate twists…

At Chai Guys Bakehouse on the weekend (on the Notting Hill Bakery Tour - really fun, thanks for asking 😘) we had their special which was a take on the combination with a crunchy pistachio and kataifi layer, plus cream and a baton of milk chocolate, with ultra thin layers of milk chocolate to top it off. It was loved. Once again I wish I lived closer.

📌 193 Portobello Rd, London W11 2ED

🚆 Ladbroke Grove / Notting Hill Gate

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I wrote about a “Dubai Brownie” here:

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For my American friends, chocolatiers Garcia Nevett make a hot chocolate version in Miami, as well as lovely chocolates, mostly using El Rey couverture. Isobel kindly gave me these when she visited London recently.

📌 7312 SW 57th Ave, South Miami, FL 33143, United States

🚆 South Miami

The most decadently delicious chocolate cookie

My plans for sharing it did not happen. Oops.

Where is it from?