Traditional Chocolate Salami Dessert, Grandmother’s Recipe (VIDEO)
Traditional Chocolate Salami is a no-bake dessert made with plain biscuits and dark chocolate, very easy and quick to prepare. Today it has become a classic of Italian cuisine.
The Origin of Chocolate Salami Dessert
Chocolate Salami is a dessert called “salami” because of its appearance: its cylinder shape sprinkled with icing sugar and then cut into slices, resembles a real salami.
This dessert appeared for the first time in the “Manuale di Nonna Papera”, a recipe book from the 1970s, with the name Viking Salami or Turkish Salami in reference to its characteristic dark color which recalls the skin of the Moors.
Like any classic recipe, there are different versions and each family has its own personal one: there are those who, for example, add Oro Saiwa biscuits, as tradition dictates; those who instead opt for another type of plain biscuits; those who still enrich the dough with dried or dried fruit; and who adds coffee.
Today I’m going to you my family’s traditional Chocolate Salami recipe, like my grandmother used to make, which will give you a delicious and very nice dessert to serve. I just added a small variation to my grandmother’s original recipe: once raw eggs were used, but since today it is preferable to opt for cooked eggs, I decided to cook them over a Bain Marie, otherwise known as a double broiler. The result will be a delicious chocolate salami as amazing as the original, only safer for your health.
Traditional Chocolate Salami Ingredients
- Dark chocolate – I love the strong-flavored chocolate salami, so I use 70% dark chocolate. For a less intense taste, however, you can use 50% dark chocolate.
- Plain cookies – In my family, we always use Osvego biscuits, but also Oro Saiwa biscuits or digestive biscuits will work great!
- Egg
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar – I like the slightly grainy texture of granulated sugar. But you can replace it with any type of sugar of your choice.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Rum – If you don’t like Rum, feel free to replace it with another liqueur of your choice. If you prefer a completely alcohol-free dessert (for example, to serve it at a children’s party), you can use orange juice. If you like the rum flavor (this version of Chocolate Salami has a very light rum flavor!), but don’t want an alcoholic dessert, you can replace the rum with a rum-flavored emulsion of your choice.
- Powdered sugar for decoration (optional)
👉🏻 NOTE: For a gluten-free Chocolate Salami, just use gluten-free biscuits like these Gluten Free Vanilla Tea Biscuits.
How to Make a Vegan Chocolate Salami
Do you eat vegan? No problem! With some ingredient substitution, preparing a mouth-watering chocolate salami will be a piece of cake!
First, be careful about using vegan dark chocolate and vegan cookies. Then just replace the butter with vegetable margarine. Finally, you can omit the eggs, but remember to increase the amount of margarine by about 40 grams for each egg replaced.
Classic Chocolate Salami Video Tutorial
How to Make Traditional Chocolate Salami
Tools You Will Need
- Double boiler pot set (Optional)
- Mixing bowl
- Cooking thermometers digital instant-read (Optional)
Crumble the Cookies. Let’s start by coarsely crumbling the biscuits; I put them in a transparent bag and crush them with a meat tenderizer or a rolling pin (I have no preferences). Carry out this step by hand, so as not to break up the biscuits too much: one of the characteristics of the chocolate salami is precisely the presence of clearly visible pieces of biscuit in each slice.
Set Up a Bain Marie. Set a heat-proof bowl above a pot of barely simmering water, there should be only a few small bubbles per second. The edges of the bowl should be fully within the pot, but not touching the water. Add the eggs and stir continuously until they begin to thicken. At this point, the eggs will no longer be raw. Add the chocolate and mix well until it’s all melted. Let it cool for 5 minutes.
👉🏻 NOTE: To be sure that you have pasteurized the eggs, you can use a kitchen thermometer and check that the temperature has reached 60 °C while continuing to mix.
Make the Buttercream. While the egg and chocolate cream cools, work the butter until creamy, then add the sugar, cocoa powder, and rum. Mix well until you get a smooth and homogeneous cream.
Combine the Ingredients. Mix the cream with the egg and dark chocolate mixture. Then add the crumbled biscuits and mix well.
Shape the Chocolate Salami. Put the mixture in the center of the sheet of parchment paper, and try to give it the typical shape of salami, helping you with your hands and with the parchment paper itself. Roll up the baking paper and then proceed in the same way with aluminum foil, where you will have to lay the “salami” wrapped in the baking paper. Let your chocolate salami rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Once it has hardened, remove the paper and roll it in icing sugar.
How to Serve Chocolate Salami
Serve the sliced salami on a platter or wooden cutting board.
Tips For a Perfect Chocolate Salami Dessert
- Use ingredients that are at room temperature, so remember to take them out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before starting the preparation.
- You can use your favorite plain biscuits, making sure however that they are not very buttery, to prevent the dessert from being too fat as the butter is already present among the ingredients.
Chocolate Salami Storage Instructions
The chocolate salami can be stored in the refrigerator, covered with transparent film, for 3–4 days. It can be frozen for no longer than three months, taking care to let it thaw in the fridge and then keep it at room temperature for an hour before serving.
Do you like this recipe?
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Traditional Chocolate Salami Dessert, Grandmother’s Recipe
Ingredients
- 165 g Dark chocolate 50-70%
- 120 g Plain biscuits
- 1 Egg
- 120 g Unsalted butter at room temperature
- 70 g Granulated sugar
- 20 g Unsweetened cocoa powder
- 20 ml Rum
- Powdered sugar for decoration
Instructions
- Put the biscuits into a transparent bag and crush them with a meat tenderizer or a rolling pin (I have no preferences). Carry out this step by hand, so as not to break up the biscuits too much: one of the characteristics of the chocolate salami is precisely the presence of clearly visible pieces of biscuit in each slice.
- Set a heat-proof bowl above a pot of barely simmering water, there should be only a few small bubbles per second. The edges of the bowl should be fully within the pot, but not touching the water. Add the eggs and stir continuously until they begin to thicken. At this point, the eggs will no longer be raw.
- Add the chocolate and mix well until it’s all melted. Let it cool for 5 minutes.
- While the egg and chocolate mixture cools, work the butter until creamy, then add the sugar, cocoa powder, and rum. Mix well until you get a smooth and homogeneous cream.
- Mix this cream with the egg and dark chocolate mixture. Then add the crumbled biscuits and mix well.
- Put the mixture in the center of the sheet of parchment paper, and try to give it the typical shape of salami, helping you with your hands and with the parchment paper itself. Roll up the baking paper and then proceed in the same way with aluminum foil, where you will have to lay the “salami” wrapped in the baking paper.
- Let your chocolate salami rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
- Once it has hardened, remove the paper and roll it in icing sugar.
- Slice and serve your delicious Chocolate Salami!
