Bake a Portuguese chocolate salami with David and Ana
Hey VIPs,
David from Home Again here.
Welcome to my special page in Ana's website.
Ana has told me you love hearing about her Portuguese recipes. We actually love baking together when she's in Portugal so we decided to share with you my recipe for the Portuguese chocolate salami.
We even have photos!
Ingredients
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3 large eggs
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200gr caster sugar
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80gr chocolate powder
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200gr dark chocolate
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80gr butter
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330gr rich tea biscuits (maybe less...maybe more)
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You'll also need grease-proof paper and a large bowl
In a large bowl add the eggs and the sugar. Stir with a spoon until you have a fluffy mix. This will help incorporate the sugar so you don't end up with a gritty salami. No one likes a gritty salami!
Add the chocolate powder and stir well.
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In a separate bowl chop the chocolate and the butter into small pieces and melt it in the microwave in small bursts. I usually do it in thirty-second bursts so the chocolate doesn't seize or burn. In between these bursts stir the chocolate with the butter. This will help it melt.
Add the melted chocolate to the big bowl. Make sure the chocolate isn't too hot or you're going to end up with scrambled eggs and you definitely don't want that.
Now this is the trickier part and you'll need to be quick because if the mix sets it'll be harder to create your salami.
Open your pack of biscuits and break half of the pack into small chunks. I like to crush them between my hands so I end up with some crumbs and dust as well as bigger pieces. Add the biscuits to the mix and stir until all of the biscuits are covered in the chocolate mix.
Continue doing this until you've used the whole pack. At this stage you'll need to decide if you need more biscuits or not. You don't want the mix to be too dry because then it'll be harder to shape.
Equally, if the mix is too wet it won't set properly and you'll have a soft salami. Once again, no one likes a soft salami.
Once you're satisfied that you have the perfect ratio of biscuit to chocolate mix it's time to shape your salami.
Cut two pieces of grease-proof paper and put one on top of the other. I stop them from rolling back by using two knives, just like in the picture.
Spoon your mix from the bowl onto the paper and then using the paper, shape the mix into a salami shape. The reason for having two sheets of paper is that the biscuits can sometimes pierce through the paper to it helps to have double the thickness but also to have a clean paper under the one that gets all the chocolate.
This is going to be a little messy but it gets easier with practice.
While you're shaping the salami open up the paper occasionally and scrape the chocolate using a pallet knife or the back of a regular knife and spread it over the salami.
Once you're satisfied with the shape of your salami, wrap it like a piece of candy and twist the ends.
No the salami goes into the fridge to set and you can start cleaning up.
Using a soft spatula, or your fingers, scrape the leftover chocolate from the bowl. This is yours to taste to your heart's content. Then wash up. The bowl and your face, you mucky pup.
Wait a few hours until the salami feels hard to the touch. Usually two or three hours is enough but ideally overnight, if you can wait that long.
When the salami is set you can unwrap it and cut off the ends to reveal the beautiful salami-like pattern you created.
The ends of the salami are called the butts, or arseholes, whichever you prefer. By law they belong to the baker. That's you!
Then you can taste the product of your hard work...or if Ana is around she'll do it for you.
Bom apetite!
Ana and I hope you enjoy trying your own Portuguese chocolate salami.
You can even add your own extras like marshmallows, nuts or maybe chunks of white chocolate.
If you try to make this recipe don't forget to share a photo with Ana. We'd love to have a gallery of your best salamis on this page.
Just email your picture to Ana at ana@anaashley.com
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Oh, and if you want to read how I had my first kiss with the love of my life over a chocolate salami lesson then you should read Home Again.
You may never look at pastries the same way again but you won't regret it!
Love
David