Dubai Chocolate Brownies
with ganache & berries
new on bbs
Dubai Chocolate Brownies
Fudgy and rich chocolate brownies interspersed with dubai chocolate’s pistachio cream and crispy kataifi filling. Layer on top of the brownies is a dark chocolate ganache and tart raspberries or sweet strawberries.
also choc & green
Dubai Chocolate Brownie Cookies
Chewy brownie cookies stuffed with pistachio cream and shredded phyllo: these cookies aim to replicate the flavors of dubai chocolate in cookie form and texture!
updated
No Bake Caramelized White Chocolate Cheesecake
Light & creamy no-bake cheesecake made with white chocolate that's caramelized for a toasty, caramel-like flavor. Enrobed in an oreo crust and set in a puddle of caramelized white chocolate ganache.
also updated
No Churn Chocolate Ice Cream
Smooth, rich homemade chocolate ice cream, made without a machine and just a handful of ingredients. Dutch process cocoa is bloomed so that it dissolves fully into the ice cream for a deeper flavor.
From the June Archives
2024: Sourdough Burger Buns (tip: if you’d prefer, you can use unfed starter - just up the yeast to 2 teaspoons)
2023: Sourdough Biscuits & Blueberry Cupcakes (the former has glowing reviews, the latter is the small form of the cake reviewed below)
2022: Raspberry Sorbet & Mason Jar Sorbet
2021: Black Raspberry Cheesecake Bars (use any other berry, black razzies are so hard to come by)
2020: Strawberry Rolls & Basic Buttercream Guide (the rolls are roasted strawberry puree & white chocolate!)
2019: Brownie Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches (the filling is vanilla ice cream with lemon curd but you can use anything you like - the cookies are the vehicle!)
a baker’s review
“I tested this recipe today, I’m planning on making it for a retirement party, and it was amazing!! Instructions are perfect and the cake tastes amazing. Thank you so much!” Heather on Blueberry Layer Cake
weekly reads
“The new adoption and rebranding of these dishes became part of a broader nation-building effort. One that downplayed or erased the Arab and Afro-Arab origins of these foodways. The claiming of a dish as Israeli when it is not ignores the culinary culture that existed for millennia before the state of Israel. Over time, these foods were adopted and rebranded to construct a cohesive national identity in the larger plan to exterminate all of Palestinian culture…. In the highly intellectualized (anti-intellectuals should feel free to stop reading here) concept of gastro-colonialism that has been discussed in hot take culinary academic circles, refers to the appropriation and commercialization of indigenous foods by dominant cultures. This process often tracks with the commodification of traditional dishes and strips them of their context and cultural significance. It’s often accompanied by destructive deforestation and over-taking of indigenous farmland and agricultural practices that are replaced with colonial mono-agricultural methods—eventually making the land barren while wiping out cultural foodways quite literally from seed.” Is Hummus Israeli? Culinary Erasure of Palestinian & Afro-Arabic Cuisine, tastebud.
“The continued platforming of white tastemakers such as Alison Roman for their use of “new” and “exotic” ingredients—erasing the historical roots and people behind those ingredients—is just one example of the issues that continue to plague food media. It’s worth noting that the criticism of [Rick] Bayless wasn’t just that he was a white man cooking Mexican food… Bayless was defensive and smug. He once infamously claimed that the pushback he received was essentially a form of reverse racism. He also strongly implied that a Mexican restaurant he consulted on would be the first to bring “the true flavors of Mexico” to Southern California, home to the largest Mexican population outside of Mexico.” A New Era for Latino Cookbooks, The Flytrap.
One more quote from this essay: “Learning from my dad how to make my grandma’s arroz con pollo or mole from our family’s home state of Michoacán didn’t feel like fun cooking excursions. These moments in the kitchen felt weighty and loaded, like I was being tasked with safeguarding memories that were never mine but were now my responsibility to protect and carry on.”
“Chinese food has especially been a victim of cultural food appropriation. Many Chinese American restaurants have changed their menus to appeal to the fried food that mainstream American palates are used to. For example, orange chicken was a dish that was invented by Andy Kao in the United States. In 2019 a non-Asian couple opened up Lucky Lee’s and marketed the restaurant as “clean” and less “icky” Chinese food. This fed into the racist stereotypes that Chinese food is unhealthy, cheap and dirty. Furthermore, it dismisses the oppression felt by Chinese Americans that made them adapt their food to Western tastes and the discrimination experienced by Chinese Americans because of the food they eat…. The United States has only been exposed to a certain type of Chinese food. Chinese food is one of the most sophisticated cuisines on Earth and has been around longer than many other cuisines in the world. Additionally, Chinese food is not a monolith. There are many regions within China, and each religion has its own cuisine. Chinese cuisine is diverse, flavorful, sophisticated and certainly cannot be reduced to being unhealthy, cheap or dirty.” Food Cultural Appropriation: It's Personal, The Cornell Sun.
Another quote from that last essay : “If you are going to profit off of food from another culture — especially one that has been historically exploited or oppressed — it is your responsibility to do it in a way that honors the cultural origins of the food.”
baker’s notes
For the Dubai Chocolate recipes: if you can’t get the pistachio cream, there are recipes online to make your own. Look for ones that use white chocolate if you want something sweet like the store bought varieties, or recipes that make a pure pistachio paste (with some sweetener). If you don’t like pistachio cream at all, someone made my dubai brownie cookies with nutella and they loved it - a great idea!
For the kataifi: find it in any turkish, greek or middle eastern grocery stores. If you can’t but want some crunch, very finely chop up some pistachios and add that instead (bonus: you’ll get more pistachio flavor!).
For the tahini: also in middle eastern grocery stores, look for palestinian or lebanese brands; they are the more ethical choices and the best tasting.
For the No Churn Chocolate Ice Cream: in the most recent pics posted, I had upped the cocoa to 70g. It made the ice cream a tad more grainy but it had a richer chocolate flavor which I loved.
You could also use black cocoa; it would be like this in color.
Want something churned? I’ve had a few people make and love this “midnight chocolate” ice cream recently.
For the Caramelized White Chocolate Cheesecake: ideally you make a really big batch (using this how to guide) and then you have it on hand to use for all sorts of other things too, like: a no churn CWC ice cream, a tray of fudge, a baked version of the cheesecake, brownie cookies with chunks of it, a buttercream (american style or swiss meringue) or … fudgesicles!
sam
I thank you for including excerpts from these painfully pertinent essays at the end your recipe posting. While I look forward on Fridays to receiving your weekly featured recipe, today—-and so many days over the past months—-has been filled with disappointment, worry and anger at the cruelties visited on so many in our country. A beautiful baking blog is the last place these offenses should encroach but tonight I am so grateful to be reminded others feel the same concern and yearning to help. So that’s twice in twenty four hours, dear Sam that YOU have helped ME. I had a birthday dinner last night for a friend who doesn’t like dessert ( I know; shocking!) and I made your key lime pie, as his wife told me it was the only sweet he eats. He said it was far and away the best one he’d ever had—-and it was also rather glamorous looking. Many thanks for all—-all—- you do.
Susan