Salame di cioccolato
A home dessert from Italy and Portugal that looks just like real salami: a chocolate mixture with broken biscuits, rolled into a log, coated in icing sugar and tied with string. In cross-section the biscuit pieces mimic the fat. It needs no oven and no mixer, and takes a quarter of an hour — the fridge does the rest. The key is breaking the biscuits into pieces rather than crumbs, and letting the chocolate cool slightly before the rest goes in.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Melting the chocolate 10 min
- Combining 5 min
- Shaping 5 min
- Chilling 240 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMelt the chocolate with the butter
Break up the chocolate, add the diced butter and melt in a bowl set over a pan of hot water, stirring, until smooth and glossy. The bowl must not touch the water — overheated chocolate turns dull and grainy.
Ingredients: 200 g dark chocolate, about 60% · 100 g butter · 80 g icing sugar · 30 g cocoa powder · 2 tbsp rum or milk · 1 pinch salt
Over steam, not in water — the chocolate stays glossy.Stir in sugar, cocoa and rum
Lift the bowl off the pan and stir in the sifted icing sugar, cocoa, a pinch of salt and the rum (or milk for a child-friendly version). Leave 5 minutes to cool slightly — hot mixture would soften the biscuits.
Ingredients: 200 g dark chocolate, about 60% · 100 g butter · 80 g icing sugar · 30 g cocoa powder · 2 tbsp rum or milk · 1 pinch salt
Break the biscuits into pieces
Break the biscuits by hand into fingernail-sized pieces, leaving some a little larger. Do not grind them to powder: the cut slices should show pale pieces, like the fat in salami.
Ingredients: 200 g plain butter biscuits · 50 g hazelnuts, toasted
Combine chocolate and biscuits
Add the biscuits and nuts (if using) to the chocolate and fold with a spatula until every piece is coated. Mix briefly so they do not break up further.
Ingredients: 200 g plain butter biscuits · 50 g hazelnuts, toasted
Briefly — the pieces should stay visible.Roll a tight log
Tip the mixture onto baking paper, shape a log about 6 cm across and roll it tightly in the paper, twisting the ends like a sweet wrapper. Press it firm by rolling it on the worktop — that way there are no air pockets.
Ingredients: 200 g dark chocolate, about 60% · 100 g butter · 80 g icing sugar · 30 g cocoa powder · 2 tbsp rum or milk · 1 pinch salt
Tight, ends twisted like a sweet wrapper.Chill at least 4 hours
Put the log in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. In a hurry, an hour in the freezer also works. The mixture must set fully, or the slices crumble.
Ingredients: 200 g dark chocolate, about 60% · 100 g butter · 80 g icing sugar · 30 g cocoa powder · 2 tbsp rum or milk · 1 pinch salt
Roll in icing sugar
Unwrap the log and roll it in icing sugar, rubbing it in with your hands — the white bloom makes the dessert look like cured salami. For effect, tie the log with kitchen string.
Ingredients: 20 g icing sugar
Slice with a sharp knife
Cut the salame into 1 cm slices with a sharp knife dipped in hot water and dried. Serve lightly chilled, with coffee or after a meal.
Ingredients: 200 g dark chocolate, about 60% · 100 g butter · 80 g icing sugar · 30 g cocoa powder · 2 tbsp rum or milk · 1 pinch salt
Before you start
The version with egg
Many traditional Italian recipes add a raw egg to the mixture. This version has no egg — no warnings needed for children or pregnant women, and the texture is just as smooth thanks to the butter and cocoa.
Which biscuits
Italians use Oro Saiwa or petit beurre — dry, buttery, not too sweet. Plain butter biscuits work too. Cookies with chocolate or filling are too sweet and go soft.
Storage
Salame di cioccolato keeps a week in the fridge, wrapped in film, and 2 months in the freezer. After taking it out of the freezer, wait 10–15 minutes — then it slices easily and neatly.
