Kunafa Chocolate Brownie

We have all seen or heard or tasted the famous Dubai kunafa chocolate at least once by now. It has now become a much-loved flavour combination that is used in several types of desserts. Here is our take on the kunafa chocolate, but as a brownie!

To achieve a rich, fudgy, chocolatey brownie, we have used Revello Classic Milk Chocolate, provided to us by one of our partners, Pyramid. This chocolate melts in your mouth and is super silky and smooth. It is also very creamy and milky – making it the perfect ingredient for this recipe’s brownie and chocolate sauce.

Serving size: 10-12

Ingredients:

For the brownie

• ½ cup melted unsalted butter
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ½ cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 50g chopped Revello Classic Milk Chocolate (half a bar)

For the chocolate sauce

• ½ cup water
• 1 ½ chopped Revello Classic Milk Chocolate (150g)

For the pistachio cream

• 200g pistachios (shelled)
• 4 tbsp melted Revello Classic Milk Chocolate (from the chocolate sauce)
• 3 ½ tbsp powdered sugar
• ½ cup full cream milk
• 3 tbsp milk powder
• 2 tsp green food colouring (liquid)
• ¼ tsp salt

For the kunafa dough

• ¼ cup flour
• 4 tbsp corn flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp vegetable oil
• 4tbsp water (at room temperature)
• 2 tsp unsalted butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.
2. Prepare a 7-inch tray by smearing butter all around the inside. Then, line it with baking paper, making sure it sticks well to the tray.
3. Next, prepare the brownie batter. For this, add ½ cup melted unsalted butter, ½ cup sugar, 2 eggs, and 1 tsp vanilla essence to a bowl. Using a whisk, mix until the sugar has mostly dissolved. This took us around 3 minutes of whisking.
4. Then, sift ½ cup flour, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, ¼ tsp baking powder and ¼ tsp salt into the same bowl. Mix well using a spatula.
5. Then, add in 50g chopped Revello Classic Milk Chocolate (half a bar) and mix everything well together again.
6. Add the brownie batter to the tray and place it in the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. When baked, the top will look cracked, but the inside will still be a little gooey because of the melted chocolate. After baking, let the brownie cool down to room temperature. You can speed the process up by placing it in the refrigerator for an hour after letting it cool down at room temperature for around 15 minutes.
7. While the brownie bakes, prepare the chocolate filling. First, add 1 ½ chopped Revello Classic Milk Chocolate (150g) into a glass bowl and set aside.
8. Then, add ½ cup water into a pot and bring to boil at medium-high heat. Once the water starts to boil (this will take around 1 minute), change the heat to low and put the bowl with the chocolate on top of pot with the water and leave it for 1 minute and 30 seconds (for this to work, the bowl must be a little bit bigger than the pot so that it doesn’t completely submerge in the water). When the chocolate begins to melt, stir the chocolate to melt it faster and make sure it doesn’t burn. It took us around 3 minutes to fully melt the chocolate. Then, remove the sauce from heat and set it aside.
9. Now, prepare the pistachio filling for the brownie. For this, add 200g pistachios into a blender and grind for 20 seconds at high power until it turns to tiny crumbs.
10. After that, add 4 tbsp melted Revello Classic Milk Chocolate (from the chocolate that was melted earlier), 3 ½ tbsp powdered sugar, ½ cup full cream milk, ¼ tsp salt, and 3 tbsp milk powder to the blender and blend again for around 30-40 seconds or until smooth.
11. Lastly, add 2 tsp green food colouring and blend for 30 more seconds or until the food colouring has mixed into the filling. Occasionally scrape down the sides to blend evenly. Pour the pistachio cream into a bowl and set aside.
12. Next is preparing the kunafa dough. For this, sift ¼ cup flour, 4 tbsp corn flour, and ¼ tsp salt to a bowl and mix well using a spatula. Then, add 1 ½ tsp vegetable oil and 4 tbsp water and mix into a smooth batter. The batter needs to be a bit runny for the strands to be thin.
13. Add the batter into a piping bag and cut a very tiny hole at the end.
14. Grease a pan with around ½ tsp oil and heat it up at medium-heat. Once it’s heated, pipe the batter on the pan in a drizzle motion, creating long, thin circular lines. When the dough lifts off the pan, take them out using a skewer.
15. Repeat until you run out of the batter. Let the cooked kunafa dough rest for 10 minutes.
16. After that, chop the kunafa dough into small pieces of around 1-2cm and set aside.
17. In a pan, melt 2 tsp unsalted butter on low heat. Once melted, add the chopped kunafa dough into it and while stirring, toast it for 10 minutes or until it turns a golden-brown colour. Change from medium heat to low heat occasionally to not burn the dough.
18. Add the toasted kunafa dough to the pistachio cream and mix well together to combine.
19. Finally, the brownie is ready to assemble. Take the brownie out of the refrigerator and spread the pistachio mixture on top of the brownie evenly.
20. Leave it in the freezer for just 10 minutes or so to set the cream (it will make it easier to spread the chocolate on top). Then, spread the rest of the melted chocolate on top of the brownie. It’s best served chilled.