I made my own Dubai chocolate - this is what you should be prepared for

Well, after seeing a Marks and Spencers ad for pistachio creme, and it being the start of the February half term, I decided I would have a go at making my own version - how hard could it be?

Well, it turns out that I didn’t need to travel into town for the pistachio creme - it’s now widely available in a range of local supermarkets. At a price though - nearly £6. I also picked up quite a lot of milk chocolate and in lieu of proper kunafa (an Asian pastry), I improvised with the only pastry I could readily find - ready to roll puff. I was ready.

Using some silicone moulds left over from the cake-making heyday of lockdown, I set to work, with my seven-year-old on hand to ‘help’.

We started by melting the chocolate and then covering the bases of the moulds with a thickish layer. That then went in the fridge to set while we tackled the filling. And this is where it got really messy.

I guessed at using half of the puff pasty, rolled it out and baked it in the oven for 20 minutes until it had risen and was golden. Then it was a case of cutting it into fine slivers. Mess. Everywhere. As could be expected.

When I got the crumbs into a frying pan, I added a little butter (as I’d seen online), to crisp them up further, before adding the jar of pistachio creme. I tried to get it so that the mixture wasn’t too sloppy.

Then again it was guess work with how much filling to put in, and how much space to leave for a chocolate topping. We went with the assumption that where chocolate is concerned, more is more.

It was a VERY messy process, especially with a child involved, so if you’re going to attempt this, make sure you have lots of kitchen roll and spray. Oh and a hoover for all the bits of pastry on the floor.

So, how did it turn out? After about 30 minutes in the fridge, I dared get a sample out of a mould. And it was fantastic. Much better than I thought it would be, and not far off what the real version (£16 for 500g) tasted like. The pastry improvision had worked - it was still crunchy - and the filling was just firm enough. It would be better at room temperature.

So although it was messy and it didn’t look as polished as the real deal, it was a half term win - i.e. we would actually eat it and despite the mess, it was fun to make. But not cheap. In all, for about five large wedges and four hearts, it probably cost about £15.

Watch the video to see what they looked like