Enlightened Chocolate Salami

I discovered this lightened up recipe of an Italian classic as I was searching for an extraordinary dessert to enter into my office’s annual holiday dessert contest, which btw is very competitive. It caught my attention because in the opening sentence, the recipe said prep time: 10 minutes. I will tell you, it took 10 minutes to make.

“Haha, that sounds very creative,” wrote my colleague Mark Raugust, the holiday party coordinator and dessert contest chair, when I emailed him the name of my entry.

“Nah I’m just getting competitive,” I told Mark, a triathlete.

“Glad to hear it.” 

Needless to say this salami makes an award-winning gift even if the winning entry at my holiday party was my colleague Molly Ludwig’s gorgeous and delicious layer cake with ganache frosting.
Adapted from I Will Not Eat Oysters

How to make it

• Melt the chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and butter in a double boiler or in a small saucepan sitting in a pot of lightly simmering water. Mix often to be sure the chocolate is melting evenly. It may start to look like it’s separating but that is ok. Season with a pinch of salt and mix.
• As soon as the chocolate is melted, combine with the Oreos, pretzels, and tea biscuits. Transfer the mixture to a long piece of plastic wrap and form it into a salami shaped log. (At that point I sliced the log in 2 pieces to make 2 salamis, but your preference.) Wrap super tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for about 3 hours to set.
• Unwrap and roll in sifted confectioners sugar.
• Wrap in white parchment paper to look like a real salami and tie with rope. I used a piece of a brown grocery bag to mark the package. Keep wrapped in the fridge until ready to serve. This will keep, if wrapped well, for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for 1 month. Bring to room temperature before slicing, but again your preference, depending on whether you need an upper body workout.

Ingredients

• 7 ounces good quality dark chocolate (85% cocoa) (I use Guittard)
• ½ cup sweetened condensed milk
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• Pinch of salt
• 1 heaping cup roughly chopped Oreos (about 10) (I used organic Os from Whole Foods) (I placed the oreos in a ziplock bag and used a crab mallet to smash them)
• ½ cup roughly chopped salted pretzels (same technique as oreos)
• ¼ cup roughly chopped tea biscuits or graham crackers (I used Biscoff Cookies) (same technique as oreos)
• Confectioners sugar