Poster for Dubai Chocolate Sundae seen in Ghirardelli Square.
We happened to be in San Francisco last spring when the Ghirardelli Dubai Chocolate Sundae was dropped at their multiple shops around the square. The lines were endless and though the first 200 got a free sundae there were far more hopefuls than that. We assumed it was a limited special and understood why someone might spend half their day waiting in line to try it.
This week we’re back, and turns out the Ghirardelli Dubai Chocolate Sundae has become a menu staple. A family member had a certificate good for a free premium sundae so he ordered one, and we were lucky enough to snag a taste. Ghirardelli uses their standard chocolate caramel square and pipes in a layer of “pistachio butter” with “toasted kataifi” mixed in. It was a treat and immediately we began scheming to make a copycat version of those two items which seem to define Dubai chocolate in its various forms.
To make pistachio butter, we assume you could grind shelled pistachios in a mini-chop; you’d want to buy the ones that are dyed green or else add a drop of green food coloring. Kataifi are fragments of baked phyllo crust which you are not likely to have on hand unless you are a middle eastern bakery. But they provide crunch rather than taste so we will substitute, you guessed it, crumbled corn flakes.
Corn flakes are already due for a moment in our kitchen as we prepare Margaret Painter’s Baked Filet of Sole. And as we shopped for Halloween candy we were reminded that our favorite Butterfingers got its crunch from corn flakes (though not any longer). Who else has a creative use for corn flakes?
P.S. Ghirardelli is about to take its Dubai chcolate on the road, as a filling in this new version of their chocolate candy.
I wonder if you could use crumbled Shredded Wheat in the filling- from the large biscuit. if it isn’t saturated with liquid it has a nice crunch.
Sure, that might work. Would be fun to do a comparison of corn flakes vs shredded wheat as the crunchy element.
Update, ran across a description on Trader Joe’s website for their Dubai chocolate bar and they describe the crunchy bits as “shredded”. So shredded wheat might be the way to go.
I am so going to try the Ghiradelli bar when I find one…have not seen the Dubai chocolate bar at Trader Joe’s…but will check again on my next visit!!
The bar was marked out of stock when I saw it on the TJ website, so I don’t think you’ll find it. If you feel like a day trip, there’s a $20 Dubai chocolate bar for sale at the 7-11 off Exit 15.
Price Chopper/Market 32 has them for $15 a bar…..um…a tad too pricey for me…
Price Rite Schenectady. Bolci Dubai Chocolate $9.99
Just FYI, never had.
Let’s all melt our leftover halloween candy and add some crumbled pistachios and corn flakes/shredded wheat, ok?