Dubai Chewy Cookie Recipe With Chocolate and Pistachio Filling

I decided to try out the Dubai chocolate trend by making some Dubai chewy cookies and some regular chocolates. This is a pretty easy cookie recipe to make, but they look more complicated than they are. It’s an easy sweet treat that will impress people for a party or holiday cookie exchanges.

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What’s a Dubai chocolate?

The Dubai chocolate is basically chocolate with a filling made from pistachio cream and kataifi, which is shredded phyllo dough. You can toast the kataifi or leave it untoasted, and it gives the filling a crunchy texture that goes well with the smooth chocolate.

We went out for breakfast recently and the restaurant had Dubai chocolate cookies, so I decided to try it out at home. It’s basically a filled cookie that has a contrasting color filling baked into the cookie.

I used the pistachio and kataifi for the filling in both these cookies and in the regular chocolates that I made (you can see those here) and it was easy to make and handle. The ingredients can be more expensive than regular cookie ingredients, so be prepared for that.

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Ingredients and supplies you’ll need.

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Supplies (all links are affiliate links):

Ingredients:

You can also get the ingredients for these, and ready-made chocolates, from Ceres Gourmet using my discount code to get a discount on your entire order: Ceres Gourmet, use discount code KARABUNTIN

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Recipe and ingredients.

Prep:

Preheat the oven to 350F
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Make the filling:

For the filling for the cookies, mix the jar of the pistachio cream with 1 cup of the Kataifi. You want about a 1:1 ratio of both, so if the jar that you have is a lot larger or smaller than about 1 cup’s worth, you’ll need to adjust the amount of Kataifi.
Using a #70 cookie scoop (or about a teaspoon) scoop the filling onto a cookie sheet that’s lined with parchment paper.
Put the filling balls into the freezer for at least 10-15 minutes.

To make the chocolate cookie dough:

Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave. I put it in for 1 minute then stirred it with a whisk to combine the two. Make sure that all the pieces of chocolate are melted.
Mix the sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl, stir to combine.
Add the butter and chocolate mixture into the sugar mixture and stir to combine.
Add the flour to the bowl and stir until it’s totally combined.
Put the dough into the refrigerator or freezer for ten minutes to cool it off.

Assemble the cookies:

Use a #40 cookie scoop (or about 2 tablespoons sized ball amount) and gloved hands, scoop some of the chocolate dough and put it in your hand.
Flatten it a little and put a ball of the filling on it.
Press the chocolate dough up around the ball of the filling to cover it completely.
Roll the ball in your hands to round it, then put it on a parchment-lined cookie sheet about 1 1/2″ to 2″ apart from each other.
Put the cookie sheet in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to solidify the dough.
Bake for 12 minutes.
If you have cookie dough or filling left over, you can make plain cookies or freeze the filling balls to use later.

Shape the cookies:

Take the hot cookies out of the oven after 12 minutes.
Take a flat glass or measuring cup and press gently on the cookies to flatten the tops.
Either put them back in the oven for 2-3 more minutes for a less-chewy cookie, or just put the cookie sheet on a cooling rack WITHOUT TAKING THE COOKIES OFF THE SHEET.
Let the cookies cool off completely on the cookie sheet. They’re going to be too soft to handle when they’re hot, so make sure they’re totally cool before removing them from the cookie sheet.

Store the finished cookies in a sealed container at room temp, or freeze them for later.

Tips for making this recipe.

Make sure that you refrigerate the dough and filling in between steps to keep the dough cold. This will help the cookies keep their shape when you bake them.

Use gloves when you’re assembling the cookies because the dough will stick to your hands otherwise. If you don’t have gloves you can do it with bare hands, but you’re going to have a harder time and you’ll probably have to wash your hands a lot during the process.

When the cookies first come out of the oven they may not look fully done. That’s okay, the residual heat from sitting on the cookie sheet will bake them a little more and they’ll be really chewy and decadent. If you prefer them a bit more set, they can go back into the oven for about three more minutes. Either version works well, so it really depends on the final texture you want.

After baking them, you really need to wait until they’re totally cooled off. I left them for about an hour, because when they’re hot, they’re fragile and you’ll ruin them if you try to move them. They have so much butter in them they need time to set up.

Serving and giving the cookies to people.

These cookies are really rich, so they’re the kind that you’ll eat one and feel like you’re done. So far as I’ve been giving these to people to try, everyone has said that they’re really good, but it’s not something that you’re going to eat a lot of at once.

When you break one open, the inside is the part that will impress people. The filling stays soft and rich, with the pistachio cream adding sweetness. The kataifi has a crunch that gives each bite some interest, and people won’t be able to identify what it is if they don’t know about the recipe.

It is a fancy-looking cookie and it would be great on a holiday table or Christmas buffet. More than anything, it is a dessert meant to surprise people. From the outside it already looks indulgent, but the pistachio center is what will impress people.

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