Pistachio Cream, Spread or Paste: Which One for Kunafa, Dubai Chocolate and Cakes
Pistachio cream, pistachio spread and pistachio paste look alike in the jar, but they do three different jobs. Here is what is in each one, how to read the label in ten seconds, and which belongs in your kunafa, your Dubai chocolate and your pistachio cake.
Search for pistachio spread in Malaysia and you are in good company: Google’s keyword data shows searches for it up about tenfold on last year, alongside the rise of Dubai chocolate and pistachio kunafa. Shop for one, though, and you will find three names on the shelf — pistachio cream, pistachio spread and pistachio paste — that look alike in the jar and behave very differently in the kitchen.
The difference matters more than the name suggests. When The Sun asked Malaysians about the pistachio boom in June, a George Town barista put it plainly: “a lot of places don’t actually use pure pistachio paste. Some use blends or flavouring.” Another customer said pistachio “should just be a nice, milky green colour.” This guide shows you how to tell the three apart, and which one to reach for.
Délice Pistachio Paste is peeled Iranian pistachio from Kerman and Rafsanjan, ground and nothing else: no sugar, no added oil, no milk, no colouring and no emulsifier. That makes it an ingredient, not a finished spread — you decide how sweet and how soft it becomes. Every Délice product is halal-certified.
Three Products, Three Jobs
How to Read the Label in Ten Seconds
- Ingredients are listed by weight, heaviest first. Malaysian food labelling rules require it, so the first ingredient is the biggest part of what is in the jar.
- If sugar comes first, it is mostly sugar. That jar is a sweet spread flavoured with pistachio. It can still taste good on toast — just know that is what you are buying.
- Look for a percentage. Many labels say how much pistachio is inside, such as “pistachio 40%”. If there is no number, its place in the list tells you roughly where it stands.
- Spot the oil and milk. Vegetable oils make a cream smooth and soft; milk powder and white chocolate make it creamy. Both take up room that pistachio would otherwise fill, and both matter if you avoid dairy.
- Check for colour and flavouring. A colour, often shown as an E-number, or the word “flavouring” means some of the green or the taste does not come from pistachio.
- Check the certification. If halal matters to you, look for the logo on the jar. Creams with milk, chocolate or emulsifiers have more ingredients to certify.
Now turn our jar around:
One ingredient also means one quirk. With no emulsifier, the pistachio’s own oil slowly rises to the top of the jar. That is a sign of what is not in it, not a fault: stir it back in, and keep the jar in the fridge.
Which One for Kunafa, Dubai Chocolate and Cakes
Each answer below comes with a starting formula. Reach for cream when you want speed; reach for paste when you want a stronger pistachio flavour and control over the sweetness. Make one small batch first and adjust it to your taste.
Classic kunafa — knafeh or kunafeh, however you spell it — is filled with cheese or ashta cream and finished with ground pistachio on top, so it needs no pistachio cream at all: scatter Pistachio Granules or Pistachio Powder over the syrup. The modern pistachio kunafa, and the kunafa cups all over Instagram, are filled with green pistachio. Here is the paste version.
You need
- 200g kataifi (shredded pastry), thawed
- 80g ghee or butter, melted
- For the filling: 100g pistachio paste, warmed until pourable; 200g cream cheese, softened (or thick ashta); 40g icing sugar; 2–3 tbsp cream or milk
- For the syrup: 100g sugar, 80ml water and a squeeze of lemon — or 4 tbsp honey
- 20g pistachio granules, to finish
Method
- Heat the oven to 180°C (fan 165°C). Pull the kataifi apart, cut it into 3–4cm lengths and toss it with the melted ghee. Press it into a 12-hole muffin tin, up the sides, to make cups.
- Bake for 15–18 minutes, until deep golden. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then lift the cups out.
- Simmer the sugar, water and lemon for 5 minutes into a light syrup, and let it cool.
- Beat the cream cheese with the icing sugar until smooth, beat in the paste, then loosen with the cream until it pipes easily.
- Brush the cups with a little syrup, pipe in the filling and top with the granules.
The viral chocolate pistachio bar — coklat Dubai, as many Malaysians search for it — is a chocolate shell around toasted kataifi bound with sweet pistachio. Most recipes use jarred cream, because it sweetens and binds in one step. Making the binder from Pistachio Paste and a little white chocolate does the same job, with a stronger pistachio flavour.
You need
- 100g kataifi, cut into 1–2cm pieces
- 30g butter
- 150g pistachio paste, warmed until pourable
- 50g white chocolate, melted
- 1 tbsp tahini, optional
- A pinch of salt
- For the shell: about 300g dark or milk chocolate, melted (tempered, for a clean snap and shine)
Method
- Toast the kataifi in the butter over medium-low heat for 6–8 minutes, stirring, until golden and crisp. Cool it completely.
- Stir the paste, white chocolate, tahini and salt until smooth. This is your homemade pistachio cream; taste it, and add 1–2 tablespoons of icing sugar if you want it sweeter.
- Fold in the cooled kataifi.
- Coat the bar moulds with a thin layer of chocolate and let it set. Fill with the pistachio mixture, level it, seal with more chocolate and chill for 30 minutes, until set.
In a pistachio cake, paste belongs in the sponge and the buttercream. It is unsweetened, so it does not upset the sugar in your recipe. Cream adds sugar and oil you would have to take out somewhere else — but it makes a lovely sweet layer between the sponges. For a sponge with paste in the batter, see our pistachio cake guide.
You need
- 250g unsalted butter, soft
- 300g icing sugar
- 100g pistachio paste, warmed until pourable
- 1–2 tbsp milk and a pinch of salt
- 30g pistachio granules, for the sides
- Optional: about 100g pistachio cream, for a layer between the sponges
Method
- Beat the butter for 3–4 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
- Add the icing sugar in two batches and beat for 2 minutes more.
- Beat in the warm paste and the salt, then the milk, until smooth and spreadable.
- Fill and cover the cake. For a cream layer, spread a thin layer of pistachio cream over the buttercream between the sponges. Press the granules around the base.
“Paste is an ingredient. Cream is a finished filling. A spread is whatever its label says.”
Where Pistachio Cream Fits — and How to Make Your Own
Pistachio cream is not the wrong choice; it does a different job. When you want to fill or spread straight from the jar, it saves time, and plenty of good kitchens use it exactly that way.
We make only pure paste, for one reason: paste can become a cream, a filling or a spread, but a cream can never become paste again. If you would rather choose what goes in, make your own cream from paste in two minutes:
Can You Make Pistachio Paste at Home?
Yes — and “how to make pistachio paste” is one of the most-searched paste questions in Malaysia. You need peeled kernels and a strong food processor: blend for 10–15 minutes, resting the motor every few minutes, until the crumbs turn into a smooth, pourable paste. We do not recommend it for most kitchens, for three reasons:
- It does not save money. On our store, 250g of peeled kernels costs the same as 250g of Pistachio Paste — paste is simply kernels, ground.
- Home processors struggle. Most get hot and need resting long before the paste is fully smooth, so homemade paste is often grittier.
- Heat dulls the colour. The longer and hotter the blend, the more the green fades.
Our full guide to making pistachio paste at home covers the method, and when it is worth doing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is pistachio spread the same as pistachio cream?
Can I use pistachio paste instead of pistachio cream?
Can I use pistachio cream instead of paste in a cake?
Which is best for Dubai chocolate?
Why does pistachio paste cost more than some pistachio creams?
Why does my pistachio paste separate?
Pure Pistachio Paste
Peeled Iranian pistachio from Kerman and Rafsanjan, ground and nothing else — no sugar, no added oil, no milk, no colouring and no emulsifier. In 250g, 500g and 1kg jars.
