Chocolate Salame; a fun and easy dessert centrepiece made from creamy chocolate, crunchy biscuits and toasted nuts.
A slice of chocolate sausage may not be your idea of a treat, but today I’m here to convince you otherwise.
Fear not, this Chocolate Salame doesn’t actually contain the cured meat, dried garlic, or melting pockets of fat that a regular Italian salame does. Instead, you’re in for a mouthful of sweet chocolate, crisp biscuit pieces, and chopped nuts.
The Chocolate Salame (or Salame Cioccolato) is a snack or dessert known throughout Italy, and also believed to have origins in Portugal. The treat is famously shaped, sliced, and eaten just like a cured sausage would be. It’s even common to dust them in icing sugar and wrap them in twine for an even more realistic appearance. Maybe best not to put any on your pizza though…
Naturally, there are many variations on a recipe like this. The type of chocolate, biscuits, nuts, and other inclusions can change drastically from one recipe to another. The Chocolate Salame you see before you is the second version of a recipe I whipped together.
Originally, I had opted for an even blend of milk and dark chocolate with a few spoonfuls of cream. This was accompanied by broken Lotus biscuits and chopped hazelnuts. It was good, but it wasn’t great upon tasting it. Something wasn’t quite right.
The recipe I’m sharing now is the improved version. It uses slightly more dark chocolate, not for any reduced sweetness but rather for a slightly bolder chocolate flavour. I swapped the Lotus biscuits for a plainer almost vanilla-scented biscuit, as the former felt somewhat overpowering. The hazelnuts remained the same, as they are never a bad idea. I also added the traditionally used egg rather than the cream tried previously, but while leaving out the traditional booze.
The result was a much tastier, more balanced, and extra chocolatey Chocolate Salame.
In fact, feel free to play around with the biscuits, nuts and chocolate you use. This recipe is perfectly customisable depending on your flavour preferences. As long as the quantities don’t change, it should still turn out right!
How about milk chocolate, cocoa biscuits, and pistachios? How about dark chocolate, spiced biscuits, and almonds? How about milk chocolate, ginger biscuits, and walnuts?
How about trying this Ultra Thick Italian Hot Chocolate as another mediterranean winter treat?
You’ll get two generously sized Chocolate Salami from this recipe, with up to 20 slices in total. Otherwise you can halve the quantities just to make one if your prefer!
While you’ll need a wee bit of heat to melt your chocolate, this is a totally no-bake treat. No fancy equipment or strenuous effort required either. You can whip up your Salami in just a few minutes (and allow a few hours’ patience while they set). Even better, these keep for days in the fridge, wrapped or not. A Chocolate Salame could even be a great gift over the festive period.
I hope you enjoy this weird but wonderful chocolate sausage as much as we have!
Want to save this Chocolate Salame for later? You can pin the image below:
To make this Chocolate Salame, simply follow the recipe below!
Ingredients
- 250g (9 oz) dark or milk chocolate (or a mix of both)
- 125g (8 tbsp) soft salted butter
- 4 tbsp icing sugar, plus extra for decoration
- 1 medium egg (or 2 tbsp of double cream)
- 200g (7 oz) plain or chocolate biscuits
- 100g (scant 1 cup) whole hazelnuts (or your favourite nuts)
Instructions
- In a large heatproof bowl, weigh out your chocolate.
- Melt the chocolate gently, either in a microwave or over a pan of simmering water, until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In a separate bowl, beat together your butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
- Beat in your egg (or cream, if using) until smooth.
- Chop the biscuits and nuts into small pieces. They should be large enough to add a bit of texture, but small enough to slice through easily!
- Stir the nuts, biscuits, and melted chocolate into the bowl of butter mixture. Stir well to combine into a lumpy chocolate stuff.
- Lay out two large sheets of clingfilm.
- On one sheet, spoon half of your chocolate salame mixture out in a line. It can be as fat and short, or as long and slim, as you like.
- Roll your clingfilm tightly over the mixture and twist the edges closed. Roll the salame back and forth until it resembles a big chocolate log, tightly concealed.
- Repeat the same process with the remaining chocolate mixture for your second salame.
- Place both salami into the fridge to set for at least 3 hours.
- Unwrap the salami, and dust generously with icing sugar.
- Slice and enjoy!
