Chocolate salami

I remember how every time my mother made chocolate salami, I could not wait for it to be ready. Those were long and hard hours of waiting. That salami was a bit different with butter as the main ingredient mixed with cacao and cookies. That was it, and on good days, she added some pate de fruit pieces. Then it was time to cut it and have the first piece. This was a delicacy during Soviet times and something we made rarely but wanted so much.

This one is very different from what my mother used to make. But it still reminds me of those days when she made it. And waiting today is no easier – it is still good patience training.

Ingredients

100 ml whipping cream
1 tbsp honey
150 g 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
140 g butter, in pieces
1/3 vanilla bean, seeds
zest of 1 organic orange, finely grated
1 egg
25 g candied ginger, small pieces
30 g walnuts, broken into bigger pieces
60 g gingerbread cookies, broken into pieces
45 g naturally dried cherries

for rolling:
powdered sugar
cacao

Prepare

Heat the cream with honey until the first bubbles appear. Pour over chocolate and let it sit for 1 minute and then stir until the chocolate has melted. With the blender running, add pieces of butter - adding the next one when the first one has melted. Blend in the egg. Add vanilla, orange peel, walnuts, cherries, gingerbread and ginger, and mix with a spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge until it has the consistency that you can roll into a salami.

When it is ready to be rolled, make one long salami, wrap in baking paper and roll it more if needed. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge for a few hours. Roll in cocoa and powdered sugar before cutting. Serve.

Recipe and photos: Signe Meirāne
Photos taken with Sony alpha 7s