Chocolate Salami

Wotchers!

Here’s a fantastic no-bake-er which can be nibbled on for dessert, with coffee, with a pot of tea or a glass of something stronger.

Rich dark chocolate, crunchy biscuit, juicy fruit and just a hint of alcohol – or not, your call – you can easily customize this to your own particular tastes and glam it up with a generous glug of your booze of choice or omit it completely and use fruit juice instead for a family treat.

I’ve made this one using preserved ginger with some ginger wine, but any combination of dried fruit and alcohol would work – cherries and cherry brandy, rum and raisins, sultanas and orange juice, cranberries and raspberry juice. If the fruit is on the dry side, then soak it in the alcohol/fruit juice for 30 minutes beforehand.

It’s a great make-ahead  biscuit and will sit in the fridge quite happily for several days if needed, with just 2 minutes needed to tweak presentation.

The high proportion of biscuit means that, whilst the flavours are full and indulgent, each slice isn’t over-rich.This might not hold true if you scoff half the slices in one sitting, so don’t *wags finger* – even though you will be very tempted.

Best of all it looks like a salami!

But it’s sweet!

Of course you don’t have to tell people it’s sweet at all – more left for the non-cook that way – Nom!

Chocolate Salami

60g unsalted butter
115g good quality plain chocolate – 70% for preference
115g good quality milk chocolate [1]
2tbs ginger wine
75g crystallised ginger in syrup – drained and chopped weight.
2tbs syrup from the crystallised ginger
175g plain biscuits[2]

icing sugar for dusting

• Tear off a generous strip of kitchen foil and grease it with butter.
• Put the chocolate, butter and syrup into a saucepan and heat very gently until just melted.
• Break the biscuits into a bowl – don’t break them too small as you want to be able to slice through them when serving.
• Remove pan from the heat and stir in the chopped ginger and the ginger wine.
• When fully combined, add the broken biscuits and gently fold them together until the biscuits are fully coated with the liquid chocolate. If the mixture looks a bit loose, add in a few more biscuits.
• Pour the mixture onto the greased foil and shape into a rough log.
• Roll the foil around the mixture and press the foil around the mixture into a smooth log shape. The creases and folds of the foil will help give the chilled biscuit the appearance of a salami.
• Twist and fold in the ends and place the roll in the fridge to set, preferably overnight.

• To serve: Remove the foil wrapping and dust the chocolate salami with icing sugar. Make sure you rub it in to all the nooks and crannies – it’s amazing how  this simple act transforms the roll into what appears to be a genuine cave-aged saucisson sec!
• Use a sharp knife to cut thin slices from the roll and arrange on a plate. Alternatively, serve it uncut and see who is fooled!

[1] If making this for children, think about increasing the proportion of milk chocolate and reducing the amount of plain chocolate. Keep 230g total.

[2] If you live in the UK, Rich Tea biscuits are perfect. Digestives are too crumbly and have a little too much fat in to hold together while the salami shape is being formed.