The TikTok-Famous Dubai Chocolate Traces Its Origins to the 13th-Century Middle East

Generation Z is putting its own spin on knafeh, a dish first designed to quash a caliph’s hunger pangs

Claire Turrell
Nabulsi knafeh
The well-known Nabulsi knafeh consists of crumbled Nabulsi cheese topped with fried kataifi pastry. Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Chef Fadi Kattan has fond memories of seeing a tray of glistening golden-topped knafeh being placed in the center of his family’s dining table. “I remember the warm syrup being poured on top of it, pistachios being thrown on it and then being served that slice of knafeh where the cheese is still melting,” says the author of the 2024 cookbook Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food.

Knafeh, an Arabic cheesecake with a crispy top of vermicelli-like fried dough known as kataifi, glossy with a syrup called attar (the same used on baklava) and sprinkled with pistachios, can be found front and center at any sort of social gathering in the Middle East. Now, it is also starring on TikTok.

Fix Dessert Chocolatier, a shop based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, created a knafeh-filled chocolate bar that has gone viral on TikTok and inspired a cornucopia of crunchy pistachio-green-filled treats. When Ukrainian food influencer Maria Vehera first cracked open the chocolate bar on screen in December 2023, the international craze for knafeh began. Her video has now had over 122 million views. The London-based delivery app Deliveroo revealed that the “Can’t Get Knafeh of It” chocolate bar was its top-trending item in the world in 2024. (Locally in Dubai, one of the special bars retails for around $20.)

@mariavehera257 @fixdessertchocolatier WOW, JUST WOW!!! Can’t explain how good these are! When a chocolate, a dessert and a piece of art meet this is what you get! :chocolate_bar: "Can't Get Knafeh of it," "Mind Your Own Busicoff," and "Crazy Over Caramel." Order on Instagram Chatfood or Deliveroo and let me know what’s your FIX? Instagram : fixdessertchocolatier #asmr #foodsounds #dubai #dubaidessert оригинальный звук - mariavehera257

Knafeh is now trending around the globe, with Swiss chocolatier Lindt releasing the Lindt Dubai Chocolate bar in December 2024 in New York City and the famed British store Harrods launching a knafeh croissant that’s topped with a nest of knafeh pastry, drizzled with syrup and oozing melted cheese. When companies haven’t delivered, knafeh fans have created their own delights, such as the Starbucks Dubai chocolate drink. The “secret menu” item consists of a matcha latte with two pumps of pistachio sauce and chocolate cold foam.

Each part of the Middle East has its own variation of this Arabic dessert, some with and some without cheese. Syria uses rose water, Lebanon favors orange blossom, and Egyptians use clotted cream instead of cheese. The spelling of the name can also be konafa, kunefe, kenafe, knefeh or kunafa, depending on its origin. The word is thought to have its roots in the Egyptian Coptic word kenefiten, which translates to cake.

At his grandfather’s house, Kattan enjoyed the cheese-free Bethlehem knafeh, with pine nuts and cinnamon that would drip orange blossom syrup from its strands of dough. But in his parents’ home they would indulge in the now better-known Nabulsi knafeh. The kataifi pastry would be fried, then topped with crumbled Nabulsi cheese, made from sheep’s milk and steeped in a brine that contains nigella seeds, mastic (gum) and mahleb, which is the pit of a bitter cherry. The generous dessert was then covered with an oversized dish and flipped over for serving and decoration.

“It would be served during festivities or when [we’d] invite anybody over so there was enough of us to warrant a whole tray of knafeh,” says Kattan, who has restaurants in London and Toronto and a hotel in Bethlehem.

Fadi Kattan
Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan has restaurants in London and Toronto and a hotel in Bethlehem. He is the author of the 2024 cookbook Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food. Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images

Once it is served, diners dive in, the chef adds. “It’s a dessert you eat at a fast pace because you’re basically trying to finish your piece before it gets cold [and] the Nabulsi cheese [hardens],” he explains.

Kattan considers the warm, messy treat to be a comfort food. “When it’s done well, it’s the perfect balance between salt and sweet,” he says.

The origins of knafeh

Legend has it that Mu’awiya I, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty (661 to 750 C.E.), who ruled a kingdom that stretched from Spain to Central Asia, was the first to eat knafeh. It’s believed he ate the sweet treat during Ramadan to break his fast. But the earliest recorded recipe for the dessert is found in Kitab al-Tabikh by Hasan al-Baghdadi, a 13th-century cookery book from Baghdad, says Daniel Newman, a leading authority on Arab culture and history at Durham University in England.

“Medieval knafeh, for the most part, was flatbreads cut into strips, like noodles, and then dipped in butter or oil [with an] addition of sugar and nuts, [such as] pistachios,” says Newman.

preparing kataifi pastry
Egpytian confectioners prepare the kataifi pastry used in knafeh. John Wreford/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

What we now know as knafeh came a couple of centuries later, says the food historian, when Muhammad bin Mahmud Shirvani, a court physician to the Ottoman sultans, translated Kitab al-Tabikh into Turkish—and made a couple of changes. He not only added dietary information, but he also tweaked the recipe. “The recipe is very close to the modern version [where] the batter is dribbled onto a hot surface in strands, [then removed] and sprinkled with almonds, rose water and crushed pistachios,” says Newman.

Knafeh may have found fame in the courts, but this dish cooked in a pan over hot coals was also eaten by commonfolk. According to Newman, the dish spread along religious pilgrimages and trade routes, and peddlers would sell it at street markets. Cookbooks written from Syria to Spain featured the dish.

While the most familiar version of the dish now has a layer of cream or cheese, Newman says the earliest reported evidence of the cheese version of the recipe is in a cookery book published in Beirut in 1885, although recipes can be found for cheese-filled crepes called qatayef as early as the 15th century.

Guiness World Record knafeh
Palestinian confectionery makers add the final touches to the world's largest knafeh in the city of Nablus in 2009. Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images

For many years knafeh remained the same. It would be served in homes, restaurants, bakeries and street markets in the Middle East. For the most authentic Nabulsi knafeh, people would go to its namesake Palestinian city, Nablus, which holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest knafeh, measuring 243 feet long.

Knafeh’s modern spinoffs

Now, thanks to a British Egyptian entrepreneur, knafeh is trending just about everywhere. The Dubai-based chocolatier Sarah Hamouda of Fix Dessert Chocolatier blended the flavors from her youth with her pregnancy cravings for chocolate. The result was the viral “Can’t Get Knafeh of It” chocolate bar that has fans around the world wanting more knafeh.

Maria Vehera told her millions of TikTok followers, “Wow, just wow. Can’t explain how good these are. When a chocolate, a dessert and a piece of art meet, this is what you get.”

Lindt Dubai Chocolate
Swiss chocolatier Lindt recently released the Lindt Dubai Chocolate bar. Thomas Kienzle/AFP via Getty Images
line outside of Lindt for Dubai Chocolate
Customers line up in front of a branch of Lindt in Stuttgart, Germany, in anticipation of the sale of 100 Dubai Chocolate bars on November 15, 2024.  Thomas Kienzle/AFP via Getty Images

When Lindt launched its Dubai Chocolate bar in Germany, people lined up for it like it was the latest iPhone. The German budget supermarket Lidl also saw the crowds when it launched its own version for $5 in the United Kingdom.

Even the chocolate bar’s spin-offs have turned into a trend. German model Nara Smith has been seen on TikTok hand-shelling pistachios in black lace gloves for her version of the Dubai Chocolate Strawberry Cup, which is fresh strawberries served with knafeh and chocolate sauce. A similar treat was served at the Strawberro booth at the Bryant Park Winter Village in New York City, which reportedly saw lines of people waiting for up to two hours for its $25 “Dubai Chocolate” cup with strawberries, Belgian chocolate, pistachio cream and kataifi pastry.

Bakers around the world are imagining new knafeh-inspired sweets. A knafeh-influenced tiramisu is now available at the Singaporean dessert shop Sugar Mama Lah, near the city’s famous Sultan Mosque. The team, which previously created tiramisu with matcha and lychee-rose flavors, liked the idea of giving the Italian dessert more of a crunch. The viral tiramisu comes with a rich chocolate layer, soft ladyfingers and crispy knafeh pastry.

Owner Chong De Xiang first tried knafeh in Istanbul when he worked as flight crew for Singapore Airlines. “We weren’t sure initially how knafeh and tiramisu would pair together, but it’s the perfect combination of something that is light, creamy and crunchy,” says Chong. The knafeh-inspired tiramisu quickly became the top-selling item for the halal confectioner, which is now about to launch a knafeh souffle.

London cake shop Anges De Sucre, known for its statement cakes, has launched a Dubai chocolate-inspired “Mile High Cake”—six layers of pistachio sponge, coated in silky chocolate buttercream and filled with crunchy, butter-toasted kataifi pastry.

Owner Reshmi Bennett grew up in Kuwait eating the traditional cheese-based dessert. She first tried the “Can’t Get Knafeh of It” chocolate bar last year. “While being a far cry from actual knafeh, [I] have been obsessed with it since,” she says.

Bennett says she was inspired by the fact that knafeh is a mixture of textures. Creating a tower of sponge with knafeh proved challenging, though. “Buttercream is super soft and silky, and the pistachio kataifi mixture is thick and crunchy, so spreading it on each other takes a lot of patience,” she says.

The cake is at a high price point at £225 (almost $300), due to recent price hikes for chocolate, but it’s one of Bennet’s biggest sellers. “It’s one of our easiest cakes to sell due to the popularity of Dubai chocolate,” she says.

While traditional knafeh can be found in different forms, Kattan argues that these modern fusions are not knafeh. “For Easter, I do knafeh nests with a chocolate ganache inside them,” Kattan says. “Is it knafeh? No. As soon as you start doing other things it’s a declination of knafeh. Yes, it’s inspired by knafeh, but it’s not knafeh.”

Palestinian dessert shop owner Omar Odali has proved that traditional knafeh can still draw crowds by opening pop-up knafeh restaurants during Ramadan throughout Dubai. His Nabulsi knafeh cooked over hot charcoal even drew the attention of the crown prince of Dubai, Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Dubai-based clinical dietitian Hala Barghout says it makes sense that knafeh was originally used to satisfy the hunger of a caliph breaking his fast. “Knafeh is rich in carbohydrates and fats, providing a quick energy boost after a long day of fasting,” she says. “However, from a nutritional standpoint, breaking your fast with a date is a better choice.”

Fadi Kattan’s knafeh recipe

For the cheese filling:

  • 18 ounces of Nabulsi cheese
  • 10 ounces of Akkawi cheese

For the sugar syrup:

  • 14 ounces of sugar
  • 8 fluid ounces of water
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon orange blossom water
  • 1/2 teaspoon rose water

For the knafeh crust:

  • 13 ounces of premade dried and shredded kataifi pastry
  • 3.5 ounces of melted ghee
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 1 ounce of ghee at room temperature
  • Ground pistachios, for garnish
  1. To prepare the cheese filling: Soak the cheese in fresh water for two to four hours, depending on how salty the brine is. Change the water every half an hour to get rid of the salt. Once done, drain, pat dry and crumble the cheese.
  2. To make the syrup: Combine the sugar, water, lemon juice, orange blossom water and rose water. Warm in a pan, then remove it from the heat to cool.
  3. To prepare the knafeh crust: Cook the kataifi in a pan with the melted ghee and sugar to give it a little color.
  4. Take a round baking pan and brush it with ghee. Sprinkle the dough in the bottom of the pan. Press it well until it is uniformly an inch thick.
  5. Top with the cheese mixture (about an inch in depth) so that you have two layers.
  6. Put this on top of a gas flame and keep rotating the pan for 15 minutes.
  7. Take off the flame, cover and leave so cheese keeps melting.
  8. Sprinkle a bit more of the dough on top of the cheese, so it doesn’t stick when you flip it over. Place a serving platter on top of the pan and flip it over. Then, pour the syrup on top. Use a spatula to spread the syrup like a thin gloss. Top with pistachios.

Chef’s tip: Rotate the pan constantly so it’s evenly cooked and the color is uniform.

Claire Turrell

Claire Turrell is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Singapore. Her work has been published by Insider, National Geographic, The Guardian and BBC.

Planning Your Next Trip?

Explore great travel deals

A Note to our Readers Smithsonian magazine participates in affiliate link advertising programs. If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission.