Salame di Cioccolato

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes (plus 4 hours chilling time)

Servings: 10

Origin

• Region: Emilia-Romagna / Piedmont

• Historical Context: A clever, playful home dessert created in the early 20th century. Its name comes from its visual appearance: when dusted with sugar and sliced, it looks identical to a cured pork salami.

Description

A popular no-bake chocolate log dessert combining rich cocoa powder, melted dark chocolate, butter, and sugar, packed with coarsely crushed dry cookies to mimic bits of fat inside a traditional cured salami.

Presentation

Wrapped tightly in kitchen twine like a real sausage, rolled heavily in powdered sugar, and sliced at the table into thick discs on a wooden cutting board.

Ingredients

• 200g dry Italian biscuits (like Oro Saiwa or basic vanilla tea biscuits)

• 150g dark chocolate (60% cocoa), melted

• 100g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

• 100g granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs (at room temperature)

• 50g unsweetened cocoa powder

• Powdered sugar for coating

Step-by-Step Directions

1. Crush Cookies: Place the dry biscuits into a large zip-top bag. Use a rolling pin to crush them coarsely by hand—you want a mix of fine crumbs and large, crunchy, pea-sized chunks.

2. Cream Butter: In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

3. Add Chocolate: Pour the melted dark chocolate and sieved cocoa powder into the butter mixture, stirring until a thick, glossy chocolate paste forms.

4. Fold Biscuits: Dump all the crushed biscuit pieces into the chocolate paste. Use a wooden spoon to fold them in until every cookie fragment is thoroughly coated.

5. Shape Log: Turn the sticky mixture out onto a large sheet of parchment paper. Use your hands to shape it into a tight, dense log roughly 2.5 inches thick.

6. Chill and Roll: Roll the paper up tightly around the log, twisting the ends like a candy wrapper to compress it. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours until hard. Before slicing, remove the paper and roll the log in powdered sugar.

Optional Variations

• Salame di Cioccolato Adulto: Add 2 tablespoons of dark rum or amaretto liqueur and 50g of chopped toasted hazelnuts to the chocolate paste for an elevated texture.

Cooking Tips

• Do not pulverize the cookies into a fine dust using a food processor. The visual charm of this dessert relies entirely on having distinct, large white biscuit chunks that mimic the fat cubes inside a pork salami.

Nutrition Facts

• Calories: 270 kcal

• Carbohydrates: 30g

• Protein: 4g

• Fat: 15g

• Sodium: 110mg