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Dubai Chocolate Tres Leches

A deliciously moist french vanilla tres leches cake swirled with pistachio butter. Made with homemade pistachio condensed milk, topped with cocoa whipped cream, toasted kataifi and pistachio crumble.
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Keyword: dessert, from scratch, homemade
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Pistachio Milk

  • 1 cup (150g) raw pistachios
  • 1.5 cup (350ml) boiling water

Pistachio Condensed Milk

  • 2 cup (475ml) fresh pistachio milk
  • 1/2 cup (160g) cane sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt

French Vanilla Cake

  • 1 french vanilla cake, white cake or yellow cake of choice a good store bought or boxed cake mix is fine

Tres Leches Mixture

  • 1.5 cup pistachio condensed milk slightly warmed
  • 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk slightly warmed
  • 1 can (7.6 oz) table cream or heavy cream slightly warmed

Cocoa Whipped Cream

  • 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream very cold
  • 2 Tbsp. powdered sugar or cane sugar
  • 2 tsp. cocoa powder not dark or dutch processed
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tsp salt

Dubai Toppings

  • 1/4 cup toasted kataifi
  • 1/4 cup pistachios crumbled
  • Optional: dusting of cocoa powder or drizzle of chocolate sauce

Instructions

How to make Pistachio Milk

  • Soak raw shelled pistachios in boiling water for at least two hours. Dry with paper towels and gently rub off the skins. This will help the milk be nice and green in color
  • Blend the soaked pistachios with water in a high speed blender for approx 75 seconds
  • If you do not have a high speed blender, you may need to blend for longer
  • If your mixture is nice and smooth, pour into a glass jar and chill until the next step
  • If your mixture is gritty, use a cheese cloth or nut milk bag to strain the milk. It should be thick, smooth, creamy and frothy.

How to make Pistachio Condensed Milk

  • In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, add your freshly made pistachio milk along with sugar and a pinch of salt
  • Gently simmer on medium low heat for roughly 15-20 minutes until the mixture is thick
  • It is ready when you can coat the back of a spoon, run your finger through the middle and it stays separated
  • Pour into a glass jar and allow to cool completely

French Vanilla Cake Base

  • Using your favorite cake recipe or boxed cake mix, pour into a 9x13 pan
  • Gently swirl in dollops of warmed pistachio butter
  • Bake cake according to instructions and allow to cool completely
  • When cooled, poke holes using the handle end of a wooden spoon. You want big holes all over the cake

Tres Leches Mixture

  • Mix together your fresh pistachio condensed milk, table cream and evaporated milk and slightly warm in the microwave or on the stove top. This is an important step so do not skip. You want the mixture hot but wont burn you if you dip a finger in.
  • Pour this mixture very slowly all over the top of the cake
  • Cover the cake and allow to refrigerate until the cake absorbs most of the liquid

Pistachio Butter + Kataifi Layer

  • Once the cake has chilled and absorbed most of the milks mixture, warm the pistachio butter slightly in the microwave
  • Add the toasted kataifi to the pistachio butter to create a paste
  • Very carefully dollop this mixture over the top and gently spread to create an even layer. Feel free to double this mixture if you want a thicker pistachio kataifi layer

Cocoa Whipped Cream

  • In a very cold bowl that has been in the freezer for at least 1 hour, add your heavy cream, powdered sugar or cane sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and pinch of salt
  • Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat until soft stiff peaks form. The mixture should be thick enough to hold itself on the beaters without falling. It should be soft and fluffy. Overmixing will make the mixture separate and turn into butter (not joking).
  • You can do this step by hand with a whisk but be forewarned...it is time consuming this way as it takes approx. 15 minutes of continuous mixing. I highly recommend letting a machine do the work for you in this instance.
  • Once the whipped cream is soft and fluffy, cover and refrigerate until ready to top the cake

Final Dubai Toppings

  • Sprinkle pistachio crumble and toasted kataifi generously all over the top of the cocoa whipped cream
  • For the final toppings, you can also dust cocoa powder over the top or drizzle chocolate sauce for an extra chocolate-y kick.