Billie Eilish just turned the internet’s favorite pistachio-and-knafeh bar into a dairy-free dessert you can make at home. In a new TikTok tutorial, she toasts dokme tel kadayıf—fine pastry threads used for kunafa and other Middle Eastern sweets—stirs them into a pistachio spread, packs the mixture with melted vegan chocolate in a mold, and chills it until firm. The under-two-minute demo distills the viral Dubai chocolate trend into a format any home cook can replicate.
While the bar’s roots trace to Dubai, the point here is accessibility, not provenance. Recent reporting credits British Egyptian chocolatier Sarah Hamouda with sparking the craze with a pistachio-and-knafeh bar; Eilish’s short video shows how easily that idea adapts to dairy-free ingredients and a standard kitchen.
@billieeilish sorry to do this lol but i luv it so much also impossible 2 find vegan ones anywhere & this is just as good as the real 1 if not better bixch enjoy ;)
♬ original sound - BILLIE EILISH
A vegan home kitchen tradition
That same spirit runs through the Eilish household. Eilish’s mother, Maggie Baird, actor, activist, and founder of Support + Feed—shared a vegan cottage cheese recipe that relies on tofu for both body and curds. Her method blends part of a firm tofu block until smooth, folds in small cubes for bite, and adds plant-based yogurt or a splash of oat or soy milk with lemon juice and salt for tang. The recipe takes about fifteen minutes, requires no cooking, and works across breakfasts and snacks, from toast and fruit bowls to baked potatoes and quick savory dips.
In addition to cottage cheese hacks, the family often gathers around Baird’s cozy, plant-forward recipes—in particular, her Irish-style mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, a vegan holiday staple. Baird mashes Yukon Gold potatoes—skins on for earthy flavor—with vegan butter, oat milk, cabbage, and leeks, then crowns the dish with a rich gravy made from sautéed mushrooms, tamari, and a creamy blend of reserved potato mash. Eilish told Los Angeles Magazine, “You don’t have to be vegan to eat vegan,” underscoring how her mother’s inclusive cooking brings everyone together at the table.
From TikTok recipe to arena takeovers
Eilish’s kitchen table swaps match her arena-level influence. During her six-night Hit Me Hard and Soft tour residency at London’s O2 Arena this summer, the venue went fully plant-based for show nights, with vendors serving street food-style dishes made without animal products. This was a major move for the 20,000-capacity venue, which also included the tour’s Eco Village and sustainability messaging throughout the concourse. The six shows ran in mid-July as part of the arena’s announced tour schedule.
Outside arenas and algorithms, the pistachio-and-knafeh bar keeps spreading. In the UK, independent makers and boutiques have rolled out their own riffs, and in US cities, dessert shops have turned the format into everything from crisp chocolate bars to cakes, truffles, and frozen treats. The migration from social video to storefronts speaks to why the template endures: it is visually dramatic when sliced, structurally simple to execute, and endlessly localizable.
Canva
Back online, the TikTok recipe keeps the trend’s appeal intact without dairy. Eilish leans on pantry logic—toast, mix, layer, refrigerate—skipping chocolate tempering and specialized gear while still landing that glossy, sliceable bar. It is an easily customized blueprint: nut or seed spreads can stand in for pistachio, darker chocolate intensifies snap, and a little citrus zest folded into the pastry adds aroma, all while preserving the crunch-meets-cream contrast that made the format so shareable.
“I didn’t nail the side,” Eilish quips at the end, pointing to a slightly open seam before taking a bite. “It totally fell apart but unbelievably delicious.”
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