Salame de chocolate

Portugal’s salame de chocolate is a little bit of kitchen fun.

A rich chocolately mixture studded with biscuits and nuts, shaped into a sausage and rolled in powdered sugar to resemble one of those dry-cured salamis.

Unsurprisingly, salame de chocolate was a big hit with the kids, both of whom gave it top marks.

My husband thought I was shamelessly appealing to the judges, and marked accordingly. I was annoyed at myself for tossing in extra biscuits, which made the salame de chocolate crumbly to cut.

I also think it could be even better with a splash of booze – Cointreau maybe?

My recipe is adapted from this one on the Easy Portuguese website.

Salame de chocolate

• 25g slivered almonds
• 25g slivered pistachios
• 100g caster sugar
• 150g butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 Tb cocoa powder
• 200g 70% dark chocolate, chopped (or use chocolate chips)
• 20 Maria (or Rich Tea) biscuits, broken into large pieces
• 2 Tb icing sugar

1. In a small non-stick frying pan, dry fry the almonds and pistachios until golden and fragrant. Tip into a mixing bowl and set aside.
2. In a saucepan over a medium flame, melt the caster sugar, butter, egg yolks, cocoa powder and chocolate pieces together. Stir until you have a smooth, chocolate sauce.
3. Pour the sauce into the mixing bowl with the nuts. Stir in the broken biscuits.
4. Cover and chill for 15-30 minutes, until the mixture is starting to set but is still malleable.
5. Spoon the mixture onto a large piece of wax paper (or baking parchment). Shape into into a long, salami shape, then wrap tightly, securing the ends with twist ties.
6. Chill until firm (at least 3-4 hours). Unwrap the salami and roll in icing sugar until completely coated. Wrap again, and store in the fridge until ready to slice.

Family score: 9.5 out of 10

Tags: almonds, chocolate, pistachios, vegetarian