CHOCOLATE SALAMI (Eggless)

A cousin of mine had a Maasi (an Aunt from her mother’s side) who used to make this dessert using biscuits, butter, cocoa powder, eggs and a few other ingredients. We were kids then and I can’t recall what she used to call it but it was obviously some kind of biscuit pudding. It was made over bain marie. Once cooked, she would spread it in a tray, to an inch and a half thickness, and refrigerate it before slicing and serving it. It used to find it delicious and could never get enough of it.

And when during my blogging years, I saw chocolate salami recipe, it reminded me of that biscuit pudding. Barring eggs, the recipe was close to what she used to make. The obvious difference was the shape of the serving; square slices instead of round. It is an easy, uncomplicated and forgiving, effortless recipe and yields delicious result. The Italians apparently enjoy it with wine but you can also enjoy it some coffee or tea.

Since we are facing the avian flu scare here, therefore I thought of not using the eggs for the recipe. So here is the egg-free version of that Aunt’s dessert albeit with some tweaking. The first time I tried making this dessert (without eggs) the ratios went a bit haywire, although it tasted delicious. Also, the absence of eggs, which served as the binding agent, lead to lack of adhesion between the ingredients. Therefore, I had to use condensed milk to bring the ingredients together and form a log. I guess heavy cream too would work for this recipe although I have yet to try it.

100 Gram Butter

2 tbsp Condensed Milk

120 Grams Chocolate (Mine was 45%)

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

14 Marie Biscuits

75 gm Walnuts (or nuts of your choice)

2 tbsp Kahlúa (optional)

Icing Sugar (for dusting)

*Cocoa Powder (for dusting) check notes

Roughly chop the chocolate and set aside.

Place the biscuits inside a zip-lock bag or between two sheets of parchment paper. Crush them using a rolling pin to attain small and coarse crumbs. Set aside.

Roughly chop the walnuts and toast them in a pan over medium low heat till they give nice toasty aroma. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Place the chocolate, butter, cocoa powder, condensed milk in a heatproof bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water.

Stir everything and add Kahlúa. Once everything comes together to form a smooth chocolate mix, remove the bowl and stir in the biscuit and walnuts.

Allow the mixture to cool for approximately 20 to 30 minutes.

Spread the mixture over a baking paper or foil or cling wrap / plastic wrap and shape it to form a log, using the paper or foil or wrap as a buffer.

Scrunch the ends tightly and keep the log in the fridge to chill for at least five hours but preferably overnight.

Remove the log from the fridge and unwrap it. Sift over the icing sugar on the log, coating it all over, and dust off excess. (Traditionally icing sugar is used to dust over the log but cocoa powder works just as good, may be even better)

Slice and serve. (Please check Notes)

Yield – 7½ – 8 inch log  

Note – I mostly use 55% dark chocolate however this time I had 45% dark chocolate with me therefore I used cocoa powder to counter the sweetness (since we prefer our desserts less sweet). You can skip the cocoa powder if you like your dessert sweet. Also, you may omit cocoa powder from the recipe if you are using chocolate above 55% to 60%.

Note – If you are making it for kids, skip the Kahlúa in the recipe.

Note – Check the log after forty five minutes  to check if it has retained its shape (it can sometimes flatten a bit). If not, simply take it out and while it is still inside the wrap, roll it gently to bring it back to shape and refrigerate again.

Note – I made an extra batch and shaped it into truffles, coated it with cocoa powder and we found them tasting better than the chocolate salami. Perhaps you should coat the log in cocoa powder instead of the icing sugar.

Thank you so much for your visit and see you soon again with another exciting recipe! 

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