Dubai Chocolate Donut Recipe

A Dubai chocolate donut is a filled donut built like the Dubai chocolate bar: pistachio cream and crisp kataifi inside, chocolate on top. This version fries eight yeast donuts, fills each with two tablespoons of pistachio cream mixed with butter-toasted kataifi, dips the tops in melted milk chocolate and scatters chopped pistachios over them.

Where the Dubai donut comes from

Dubai chocolate is a bar filled with a pistachio and tahini cream and chopped kadayif pastry, created in Dubai in 2021 and widely known since 2024, as Wikipedia records. The donut followed the bar. In January 2025 Starbucks in the United Arab Emirates brought out a Dubai Donut with the donut brand Here-O: a sourdough donut filled with kunafa and pistachio spread and coated in chocolate, at 12 dirhams.

In the United States, Starbucks has sold the flavour in a different pastry. Its Dubai Chocolate Bite of February 2026 is, according to Food Republic, a tart with a chocolate shortbread crust and a pistachio and kataifi filling, at $2.95.

The recipe below is this site's version of the donut, not a copy of a particular one. MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Starbucks or Here-O.

Recipe

Dubai Chocolate Donuts

Fried yeast donuts filled with pistachio cream and toasted kataifi and dipped in milk chocolate, after the Dubai chocolate bar. Eight donuts.

5.0 (1)Print

Prep

40 min

Cook

15 min

Total

2 hr 50 min

Serves

8

Cuisine

Middle Eastern

Ingredients

• For the dough:
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup warm milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 4 cups vegetable oil, for deep-frying
• For the filling:
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 ounces kataifi, cut into short pieces
• 3/4 cup pistachio cream
• For the coating:
• 6 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped pistachios

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the milk and the egg and knead for 8 minutes, working in 2 tablespoons of butter, until the dough is smooth. Cover it and let it rise for 1 hour, until doubled.
2. Roll the dough 1/2 inch thick and cut 8 rounds with a 3-inch cutter, re-rolling the scraps once. Set each round on a square of parchment, cover and let them rise for 40 minutes, until puffy.
3. For the filling, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan over medium heat, add the kataifi and stir for 6 to 8 minutes, until golden and crisp. Let it cool, then stir it into the pistachio cream.
4. Heat the oil in a deep, heavy pot to 350°F. Fry the donuts three at a time for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes a side, until deep golden. Drain them on a rack and let them cool for 15 minutes.
5. Push a chopstick into the side of each donut and move it about to make a pocket. Pipe about 2 tablespoons of filling into each.
6. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring each time. Dip the top of each donut into it, scatter the pistachios over the chocolate and let it set for 15 minutes.

Kataifi that stays crisp

Kataifi is pastry in fine threads; the kataifi page on this site explains what it is and how to make it. For the filling it is fried in butter until it is deep golden all the way through, since pale threads go soft in the cream within minutes.

Stir it into the pistachio cream just before filling. Even well-toasted kataifi loses its crunch after a few hours inside a donut, so the donuts are filled on the day they are eaten.

Proofing and frying

• Ready to fry when a fingertip pressed into the dough leaves a dent that fills in slowly.
• 350°F. In hotter oil the outside browns before the middle is cooked; in cooler oil the donut soaks up fat.
• Three at a time, so that the oil stays hot.
• The parchment squares let each donut slide into the oil without being squeezed out of shape.

Baked, for a lighter version

The same rounds can be baked: 12 to 14 minutes at 375°F, brushed with melted butter as they come out. They are closer to a soft roll than to a donut, and they take the filling and the chocolate in the same way.

Milk chocolate, as in the bar

The bar is made with milk chocolate, and so is the coating here. Dark chocolate works in the same amount. A teaspoon of pistachio cream drizzled over the set chocolate shows what is inside.

Other Dubai chocolate recipes on this site are the Dubai chocolate bar itself and the iced Dubai chocolate matcha. For a donut of a different kind, see the mochi donut.