It may look like a well-aged piece of charcuterie, but Chocolate Salami is not at all any sort of meat—it's entirely a chocolatey dessert that only looks like a salami. If you are looking for an easy, no-bake dessert that is not too sweet, this Chocolate Salami is the best recipe for you. Shall we?
Jump to:
- What is Chocolate Salami?
- Why and How to Eat More Prunes
- Health Benefits of Prunes*
- What Ingredients You Need for Chocolate Salami
- What Kind of Prunes?
- How to Make Chocolate Salami VIDEO
- Instructions for How to Make Chocolate Salami
- Ingredient Substitutions and Variations
- Tools and Equipment
- How to Store Leftover Chocolate Salami
- How to Serve Chocolate Salami
- FAQs
- Chocolate Salami Recipe
What is Chocolate Salami?
Chocolate Salami is a traditional, homestyle dessert most commonly associated with Italy and Portugal, as well as with Greece and countries in Eastern Europe. In Italian, it is known as Salame di Cioccolato and in Portugal, it is called Chocolate Chouriço. It's not as well-known in the United States, but we're working on changing that with this recipe!
The base of Chocolate Salami is, you guessed it, chocolate, into which broken tea biscuits or cookies, nuts, sometimes dried fruit, and other optional ingredients are incorporated. The mixture is rolled and shaped into a log, similar to a log of slice-and-bake cookies, then refrigerated to set. However, you don't even have to bake the Chocolate Salami slices, they're ready to eat!
Traditional, "my Italian grandma's" Chocolate Salami can but does not always include butter, milk or cream, additional sugar, cocoa powder, and even eggs! Some versions add a splash of liquor like rum or Portuguese Chouriço which has Port, a sweet, fortified red wine.
Using Prunes in this Chocolate Salami
This recipe for Chocolate Salami has no eggs, no butter nor cream, and no additional sugar. Normally, eggs, butter and cream help bind all the ingredients together and make the Chocolate Salami softer and sliceable. But for this recipe, we're relying on a single ingredient, pureed prunes, to do all of that! In addition, prunes give the Chocolate Salami just the slightest bit of chewiness to the texture that goes beyond the softness of just butter.
Naturally sweet, nutrient-dense California prunes completely replace the butter, cream, and most of the sugar in traditional Chocolate Salami, making this recipe a healthy, refined sugar-free, plant-based must-make version.
Why and How to Eat More Prunes
More fiber? Less refined sugar? Just because they taste good? For whatever reason, to incorporate more prunes to your diet beyond just popping them straight up, add prunes to the recipes you already love, especially desserts!
Prunes are naturally sweet so they are a great substitute for refined sugar. When re-hydrated and pureed, prunes can be used as both a replacement for butter or oil and as a binding replacement for eggs in baked goods. If you're looking for ways to replace refined sugar with lower-glycemic sweeteners, or reduce fat from butter, oil, or eggs, or even just move toward a more plant-based diet, prunes are an excellent way to do that.
In this recipe for Chocolate Salami, prunes soften the texture of dark chocolate, add subtle sweetness, and complement the flavor of the nuts.
If we're getting health-ical, they also replace butter, cream, sugar, and sometimes eggs that are used in traditional Chocolate salami recipes.
Health Benefits of Prunes*
One 38-gram serving of prunes, which is 4-5 prunes:
- provides 3 grams of both soluble and insoluble fiber
- has only 90 calories per serving
- is a good source of vitamin K, providing 20% RDA
- provides more antioxidants per serving than a serving of dried cranberries!
- Low-glycemic index at 29
* nutritional information provided by California Prunes
What Ingredients You Need for Chocolate Salami
You only need a few ingredients for this recipe, and you probably already have most of them:
- Dark chocolate, preferably at least 70% cacao, chips or chopped bar
- Prunes
- Coffee
- Vanilla
- Tea biscuits or cookies
- Pistachios and walnuts
- Salt
- Confectioner's sugar
This recipe does not add any sugar to the Chocolate Salami itself other than the optional dusting at the end, so the final product will be only slightly sweeter than the sweetness of whatever chocolate you use in the base. If you prefer something truly sweet, use a sweeter chocolate with a lower cacao percentage.
What Kind of Prunes?
Use California prunes for this recipe. If you're eating prunes in the United States, they're almost certainly from California, which grows 99% of the prunes in the US and 40% of the prunes in the world. You can find prunes in every grocery store near the produce department since prunes are, in fact, a dried type of plum!
And because prunes by themselves can be a healthy, subtly sweet snack, you can also find them in the snack aisle.
Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources
- Dark Chocolate. Use any high-quality dark chocolate, preferably at least 70% cacao. For this recipe, it doesn't matter whether the chocolate is chips/chunks or a solid bar. Chop the solid bar into very small pieces before melting.
- Coffee. You only need ½- to 1 cup of brewed coffee, without sugar or any lightener, obviously. Just save about a cup from your morning pot of coffee and use it for this recipe. You can also use espresso; the Chocolate Salami will just have a slightly more intense coffee undertone.
- Vanilla Extract. You really do need a drop or two of vanilla in the recipe to bring out the "chocolate." I use this organic brand of pure vanilla extract. Don't use imitation vanilla flavoring.
- Tea Biscuits. Tea biscuits are not the fluffy, baked biscuits we know in the US, they are actually a type of cookie that looks and tastes more like a slightly dry, crunchy cracker. Similar types of cookies go by different names and brands, so you can look for anything called "tea," "digestive," Maria cookies or a brand called McVities.
- Pistachios and Walnuts. You can use raw or roasted nuts of any kind, though I choose pistachios whenever I can because of their color. Pistachios and walnuts are particularly great for Chocolate Salami because they have a slightly softer texture, making them easier to cut through in the finished product. You do not have to chop the nuts.
- Salt. Adding salt to sweets isn't to make them taste salty. Salt not only brings out the natural sweetness of the prunes, it balances the sweetness, too.
- Confectioner's Sugar. Also known as powdered sugar, it mimics the powdery "bloom" that develops on the outside of actual meat-based salumi. Confectioner's sugar also contains a little bit of corn starch, which keeps the Chocolate Salami from getting too sticky.
How to Make Chocolate Salami VIDEO
Instructions for How to Make Chocolate Salami
Prepare the Prunes
Pour liquid over prunes and allow prunes to soak and plump, at least 1 hour, up to overnight. You can keep the bowl on the countertop, lightly covered, or in the refrigerator. If the prunes are particularly dehydrated, they may need to soak for several hours.
Strain out the plumped prunes, reserving the soaking liquid (coffee). Blend plumped prunes in a food processor or high power blender, adding the soaking liquid a few tablespoons at a time until prunes are pureed to the consistency of ketchup.
Form Chocolate Salami
Break the tea biscuits with your hands into pieces that are ½-inch big. You can also break the tea biscuits with a rolling pin in a ziploc bag, but the pieces might end up a little small. Just don't crush them to the point of crumbs.
** You can prep the tea biscuits any time while the prunes are soaking.
In a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate by microwaving at 50% power in 30-second intervals and stirring in between. Exact timing will vary based on how big your chocolate pieces are and the microwave oven's power. In mine, it took a total of 2:30 minutes.
Add the Coffee-Prune mixture, vanilla, and salt to the melted chocolate and stir until well combined and as smooth as you can get it. It will not be silky smooth, as the prunes will retain some of their texture.
Stir in crushed tea biscuits and nuts to the chocolate, making sure the individual pieces are well coated with the chocolate mixture. If the chocolate is still very warm, place the bowl in the refrigerator to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Scrape HALF the cooled Chocolate Prune mixture onto the plastic wrap.
Form the Chocolate-Prune mixture into the shape of a salami, about 2½ inches in diameter and 10 inches long, using the plastic wrap to help guide the mixture. Wrap the Chocolate Salami in the plastic wrap, smooth it out, and twist both ends to seal. Repeat with the remaining half on a new sheet of plastic wrap.
Chill, Slice, and Serve
Place the Chocolate Salami in the refrigerator to set, at least 30 minutes.
Once firm to the touch, remove from the refrigerator and unwrap. Dust the Chocolate Salami with confectioner's sugar.
Press sugar in with your hands, and dust off any excess.
Optional level-up step: Lace the Chocolate Salami with kitchen twine to make it look like a real salami.
To serve, slice the Chocolate Salami into ¼- to ½-inch thick slices.
Pro Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for Chocolate Salami
Make Two Different Chocolate Salami. Make the full amount of the chocolate-prune base, then divide into two bowls, and add different fillings to each one! You can do one with all nuts and the other all dried fruit, or whatever other combinations you like.
Double Prune Puree. Make double the amount of the Prune Puree by soaking double the amount of prunes and either make double the Chocolate Salami, or make another recipe like Brownie Baked Oatmeal. Or, just store the remaining half in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Slice Chocolate Salami on Bias. For a slightly different presentation, slice the Chocolate Salami on a bias, which will show more of the white, confectioner's sugar edge when the slices are flat. It's just an aesthetics thing, but you know how we are about aesthetics around here.
Dietary Considerations and Health Benefits of Chocolate Salami
In addition to the health benefits provided by the prunes, Chocolate Salami is full of dark chocolate and nuts, both of which contain compounds like flavanols, plant-based fatty acids, plant-based protein, vitamins and minerals that may offer health benefits. Look, I'm not saying that Chocolate Salami is a "health food." But I'm not not saying that either.
As far as dietary and lifestyle considerations, this recipe for Chocolate Salami as published, is:
- vegetarian
- refined sugar-free, if you omit the final step of dusting with regular confectioner's sugar or use a powdered alt-sweetener like monkfruit
Depending on the ingredients in the tea biscuits, or with easy modifications, this Chocolate Salami can be made 100% plant-based/vegan, dairy-free, and/or gluten-free! You can scroll down for those notes.
Ingredient Substitutions and Variations
Substitute for Coffee. If, for whatever reason bitter, caffeine, etc, you prefer not to use coffee in your recipe, you can use essentially any liquid to plump the prunes, even water. Here are my recommendations, as well as flavor notes:
- brewed herbal tea (no caffeine) or black tea like Earl Grey (has caffeine), to really get a flavor impact, brew the tea at double strength
- red wine, particularly pinot noir, is great for bringing out the flavor of prunes
- liquor like brandy, rum or Port, though you may want to soak only, then drain, and use water to add to the blender for texture so the final product isn't too high in alcohol content
Different Cookies or Crackers for Tea Biscuits. If you can't easily find tea biscuits, or prefer something a little sweeter since the dark chocolate and prunes are not too sweet, use graham crackers. Biscoff cookies and plain butter shortbread are even sweeter. Just make sure to use a cookie that is dry and crunchy, not soft and chewy.
Different Nuts. Use whatever kind of nuts you like. I use pistachios and walnuts for color and because both pistachios and walnuts are slightly softer than other nuts, making them easier to cut through cleanly when slicing the finished Chocolate Salami. Try almonds, cashews or hazelnuts!
Other Add-Ins. Add up to ¼ cup of dried fruit, chopped candied ginger, candied citrus, or even a tablespoon of fresh citrus zest. Fold the mix-ins into the finished mixture along with the crushed cookies. Note that the nutritional information per serving of the recipe changes, primarily the calories and fat, when you add ingredients.
Dietary and Lifestyle Modifications
To make the Chocolate Salami:
- 100% plant-based, suitable for vegans: use plant-based dark chocolate and tea biscuits. Dark chocolate, especially at higher concentrations of cacao are naturally plant-based, but if you're vegan, read the packages to make sure. Use plant-based tea biscuits. Many of the digestive and tea biscuits from European and Latin brands are plant-based/vegan by design, but read the labels to make sure.
- Dairy-free: use dairy-free dark chocolate and tea biscuits. Dark chocolate, especially at the higher concentrations of cacao are almost always dairy-free, but read the packages to make sure. Many of the digestive and tea biscuits from European and Latin brands are dairy-free by design—this is what makes the biscuits dry and crunchy! Read the labels to make sure, especially with American brands, which usually include butter.
- Gluten-free: Use gluten-free tea biscuits or crackers.
Tools and Equipment
- High power blender to blend the the prunes. The popular brand that everyone got for Christmas 5 years ago works great, but this is the brand I have and use.
- Chef's knife, my daily workhorse knife, pricier than others, but worth it. Your knife needs to be razor-sharp make clean slices through the salami
- Glass mixing bowls the perfect set to melt chocolate and mix ingredients
- Silicone spatula to mix ingredients without sticking, the cute Holiday plaid one pictured in the photos is from here
- Parchment paper this unbleached one to roll the chocolate, if you don't want to use plastic
- Kitchen twine to tie the chocolate salami so it looks like an actual salami. This one is natural, 100% cotton, and unbleached.
- Measuring cups, my favorite ones with the angled marks so you can eyeball it from above, not have to bend down to counter level
How to Store Leftover Chocolate Salami
Refrigerator. Leftover Chocolate Salami will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. Do not keep the Chocolate Salami on the countertop at room temperature. It may melt, especially in the winter when you have the heater turned up high.
Freezer. Leftover Chocolate Salami can be stored longer term in the freezer. Pre-cut Chocolate Salami into ½-inch thick slices to make it easier to pull apart once frozen, slip small squares of parchment between the slices, put the slices back together, wrap in plastic, and store in an airtight, freezer-safe container. Leftover Chocolate Salami can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator overnight.
How to Serve Chocolate Salami
Aside from just sawing off thick slices of Chocolate Salami and popping them whole while standing at the counter in your party pajamas, here are the BEST ways to serve or otherwise eat Chocolate Salami:
- Dessert Charcuterie Board. It goes without saying that something called "salami" absolutely should be on a Charcuterie Board, and in the case of Chocolate Salami, it should be a Holiday Dessert Charcuterie Board! A single Chocolate Salami cut into slices is perfect for an intimate group, or make a few Chocolate Salamis with different ingredients to fill out an epic board along with cookies, brownies, sweet dessert dips, and fresh fruit for a party.
- Charcuterie Board. Just because it's chocolate doesn't mean it can't go on an actual cheese and charcuterie board. Chocolate Salami can be a great complement to salty and savory flavors of cheese and meat! Just make sure to label the Chocolate Salami for anyone who might not already know!
- Cookies. Chocolate Salami is essentially a slice-and-NO-bake cookie, so treat the slices like cookies. Add them to a Holiday cookie platter, a Holiday cookie gift box, or take them to your next cookie exchange party.
- Edible Gifts. Dusted with confectioner's sugar and tied with kitchen twine, and perhaps even wrapped in some cheesecloth, a whole Chocolate Salami is a great homemade edible gift! Throw it into a basket with a bottle of wine and some fruit and you have the perfect sweet gift basket.
FAQs
Plums and prunes are the same fruit! Plums are the fresh, raw fruit, and prunes are dried plums, specifically a plum for prunes.
Prunes will keep for 6 months in the pantry at room temperature when tightly sealed (unopened), according to the USDA. You can also extend the shelf life to 12 months by refrigerating prunes.
One serving of prunes is estimated 4-5 prunes, or about 40 grams, or about 1.5 ounces, or about ¼ cup. Exact amounts depend on the size of the prunes.
One serving of prunes has 14 grams of sugar. With an accompanying high amount of dietary fiber, prunes do not spike blood sugar and have a glycemic index of 29, which is considered a low GI by the ADA.
One serving of prunes, which is 4-5 prunes, contains 3 grams of fiber. Prunes contain both insoluble and soluble fiber, which contribute to good gut health. source
More of the Best Healthy Prune Recipes
- Brownie Baked Oatmeal, with not-so-secret ingredient prunes!
- Healthy Chocolate Spread like nutella but with no nuts so "No-tella"
- Pinot Prune Jam, perfect spread on toast or as a condiment on a cheese board
If You're Here for the Chocolate
Here are some more chocolate-forward "no-bake" recipes
- Dark Chocolate Bark
- Matcha White Chocolate Bark
- Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding
- Dessert Charcuterie Board, an entire board overflowing with sweets
Ideas and Inspiration from Friends!
- Chocolate Salami with Prunes, Hazelnuts and Pistachios by Chef Mica Talmor for California Prunes
- Peppered Vegan Salami made with savory balsamic soy simmered prunes by my California Grown pal Jerry James Stone
- White Chocolate Salami filled with jewel-like dried apricots, pistachios, and almonds at Olive
Chocolate Salami Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 oz California prunes
- ½ cup hot coffee
- 12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 7 ounces tea biscuits
- ½ cup shelled pistachios
- ½ cup walnuts
- optional: confectioner's sugar for dusting
Instructions
Prepare Prunes
- Pour hot coffee over prunes and allow prunes to soak and plump, at least 1 hour, up to overnight. You can keep the bowl on the countertop, lightly covered, or in the refrigerator. If the prunes are particularly dehydrated, they may need to soak for the full overnight period.
- Strain the plumped prunes, reserving the soaking liquid (coffee). Blend plumped prunes in a food processor or high power blender, adding the soaking liquid a few tablespoons at a time until prunes are pureed to the consistency of ketchup
Make Chocolate Salami
- Place the tea biscuits in a plastic ziploc bag and crush into pieces that are ½- to ¾-inch big. ** You can prep the tea biscuits while the prunes are soaking.
- Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second intervals in a microwave oven, stirring between each interval. Stop microwaving once 80% of the chocolate is melted. Stir until all of the chocolate is melted. My microwave oven melted the dark chocolate in 2:30 minutes.
- Add the Coffee-Prune mixture and vanilla to the melted chocolate and stir until well combined and as smooth as you can get it. It will not be silky smooth as the prunes will retain some of their texture
- Add crushed tea biscuits, nuts, and dried fruit (if using). Stir to combine, making sure the individual pieces are well coated with the chocolate mixture. Place the bowl in the refrigerator to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
- Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface. Scrape the cooled Chocolate Prune mixture onto the plastic wrap or parchment paper.
- Form the Chocolate-Prune mixture into the shape of a salami, about 2½ inches in diameter and 10 inches long, using the plastic wrap to help guide the mixture. Wrap the Chocolate Salami in the plastic wrap, smooth it out, and twist both ends to seal.
- Place the Chocolate Salami in the refrigerator to set, at least 30 minutes. Once firm to the touch, remove from the refrigerator and unwrap.
- Optional level-up steps: Dust the Chocolate Salami in confectioner's sugar and lace the Chocolate Salami with kitchen twine to make it look like a real salami.
Slice and Serve Chocolate Salami
- Slice the Chocolate Salami into ¼- to ½-inch thick slices.
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe developed in partnership with CA Prunes! Check out the their website and follow @CAPrunes on instagram for more information on prunes!
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