\n<\/p>\n
My best advice for anyone seeking a crowd-pleasing chocolate dessert that requires no baking, minimal technique, and primarily pantry ingredients: Turn to meat. More specifically, cured, mold-encased meat secured with twine. You\u2019re reading this correctly. Your next dessert should be salami\u2014made from chocolate.<\/p>\n
Chocolate salami is a hand-rolled tube of chocolate stuffed with biscuits, nuts, and dried fruits. When sliced, the dessert uncannily resembles the cross section of dried sausages like soppressata and kielbasa. While chocolate salami is the dessert\u2019s Italian-American alias, this tubular treat has many names throughout the world: It\u2019s \u201csalame de chocolate\u201d in Portugal, \u201csokseh\u201d in Estonia, \u201cchocolate kolbosa\u201d in Russia, and \u201ccookie chip chocolate\u201d on Reddit<\/a>. In other words, it\u2019s (likely) the only plant-based meat with global approval.<\/p>\n Chocolate salami\u2019s widespread fanbase is no fluke. The dessert\u2014which has been around for at least 100 years<\/a>\u2014carries a delicious balance of sweet, savory, crunchy, and chewy notes in each bite. And, like real charcuterie, chocolate salami plays for a crowd. We like ours sliced and served on a platter alongside plenty of amaro and espresso, but if you wanted to build an entire dessert-focused \u201ccharcuterie\u201d board, that\u2019d be even better.<\/p>\n As is the case with actual sausage, the possibilities for customizing chocolate salami are endless. For example, the most popular chocolate salami recipe<\/a> on our site soaks dried cherries in orange liqueur before combining them with the other ingredients. Meanwhile, NYC-based chef and restaurateur Christian Petroni<\/a> prefers to soak the cherries in whiskey<\/a> before adding them to his mix. Point being, you could swap one booze-soaked fruit for another, and the salamis would still work.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t just take my word for it. And in this case, the comments aren\u2019t just positive\u2014they\u2019re insightful. For instance, community member Jana E recommends building two smaller chocolate sausages\u2014something that could work great if you\u2019re considering gifting this to multiple people. Even better, one community member, who operates under the username RavensFeast<\/a>, suggests dusting the sausage in powdered sugar to imitate the white mold often found on salami. (If you\u2019re looking for an example of this in action, check out Christian\u2019s video<\/a>).<\/p>\n More from Food52<\/h4>\n
\n
\nHave you made chocolate salami? Let us know in the comments below!<\/em>
\n<\/center>\n <\/div>\n