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Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking Chocolate Biscuit Cake/Chocolate Salami
Hi Bold Bakers! I'm so excited for the holidays and I hope you are too. This week I'm teaming
up with some other great YouTube channels to bring you an edible gifts collection for
the holidays. My contribution to this collaboration is a BIG & BOLD chocolate salami also known
as chocolate biscuit cake. So let's get baking!
So what's chocolate salami? Well, you might also know it as chocolate biscuit cake or
tiffin slice. It is a really simple recipe, requires no baking. You just need to mix it and put it in the refrigerator.
We're going to start out by melting our chocolate and butter gently together. You can do it
over a bain-marie or you can do it in the microwave. Just make sure you keep an eye
on it is it doesn't burn.
When your chocolate and butter is melted, we're going to add in our sugar, cocoa powder,
and vanilla extract.
Now simply whisk these ingredients together.
This cake is really popular in Ireland. I remember making it a lot growing up. The great
thing about it is it's a refrigerator cake so you don't need to bake it.
You can't have chocolate biscuit cake without biscuits. I'm using digestive biscuits because
in Ireland this is what you'd most commonly use. But you can use graham cracker, shortbread,
even gluten free biscuits if you want to keep it gluten free. Any of your favorite biscuits
or cookies will work perfectly. And if you haven't had one of these guys, I strongly
suggest you do with a cup of team. They're yummy. Mmm.
To prepare your cookies for your biscuit cake, it's super simple. Just put your cookies in
a ziploc bag. Take out all the air. Take a rolling pin and then just break them up. You
want to leave some crumbly bits, some chunks. You want to have different texture. And doing
it in a bag keeps it nice and tidy.
Now add your cookies into your chocolate. This is my favorite part of this recipe when
you can get really creative and add any flavors you like.
To this mix, we're going to add our nuts. I'm adding hazelnuts because I think Hazelnuts
are eaten a lot of times around the holidays. It just reminds me of Christmas. I'm also
going to add toasted pistachios because I love the color and the flavor.
For the dried fruit, I'm adding in cranberries because it's the holiday season but you can
add in raisins or apricots or whatever dried fruit you like.
Here's a really good tip when using dried fruit is to rehydrate it before you add it
into a recipe. So pour over some hot water over your dried fruit. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
Let it plump up. Then dry it off and put it into your recipe.
And then simply mix all of these together. I love the idea of giving edible gifts around
the holidays because it's really from the heart, from your home and it tells the person
that you love them.
To give your biscuit cake extra oomph, you can always add in liqueur like orange liqueur
or rum. Something that gives it a little bit more extra depth. Also, coffee works really
well. But I'm going to add in some orange zest because I feel like it's a great festive
flavor. Chocolate and orange work so well together. And then just stir this in. And
if you don't like orange zest, you can leave it out and maybe add in some extra vanilla
or any flavor that you like.
And that's how easy chocolate biscuit cake is. We're going to shape it and get it into
the refrigerator so it can set. And don't forget to taste it. That's my favorite part.
Mmm. This is gorgeous.
The recipe for this chocolate salami can be found below the video in the description box.
And if you're new to my channel, welcome and don't forget to subscribe.
To shape our chocolate salami into a salami, you lay down some cling film. Lay down your
chocolate biscuit cake on your cling film. Put on half of your mix. It smells so good.
Then simply wrap your cling film around it and try to shape it like a sausage. If you
grab both ends kind of like a present or Christmas cracker, and just roll it on the counter so
you can tighten up your roll. This looks perfect. We're going to put it in the fridge and let
it set and then we're going to finish with the decorating.
After a few hours when your chocolate salami has set, we're going to toss it in icing sugar.
Generously dredge over the sugar. We want to cover it completely. When it's totally covered in
icing sugar, we're going to now wrap it to make it look like a salami. And that's why
it's called chocolate salami.
Now this part is a little tricky, it took me a few times to get it.
With some twine, wrap a knot in the end. Then take your string and make a loop. And then
turn the loop over. Make your way down the log and then pull. Perfect! Make your loop.
Turn it over. Go down your salami and pull. Oh my gosh, two in a row. Yesss! Gorgeous.
Almost there. Now can you start seeing it looking like a salami. Make a loop. Turn it
over. And then pull. And there you have it, a chocolate salami. It looks and is going
to taste amazing.
Now it's time to wrap up your edible gift. Choose festive paper for your gift. Then place
parchment on top of the wrapping paper. Lay your biscuit cake on top and then tightly roll
it up. You may want to secure it with a piece of tape. Then just wrap up the ends. And tie
on a bow. You can even add your own label.
To serve your salami, simply slice it thick with a sharp knife. You guys are going to
love this, and it is the perfect edible gift for the holidays. Make sure you keep some
for yourself.
For more great gift ideas, make sure you watch all of the other fantastic videos in this
playlist. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and I'll see you back here again next
Thursday for more Bigger Bolder Baking.