Friday Dose of Chocolate #2: Chocolate Saucisson

Slice them up, Chocolate Saucisson

Have you ever broke the law?

I am not proud of it but for the love of food I did. Most international airports normally prohibits bringging in and out of certain meat products and I cannot count how many times I violated this. You see french charcuteries and me are like inseparable lovers. Since the first time I tasted them I already fell in love with them. My favorite are the french saucisson! Those dry-filled sausages best eaten with cornichon (tiny cucumber) pickles. When we used to live in Tokyo, I see to it I bring back home some for a year's consumption. I would wrap them in socks or hide them in the middle of my clothes unnoticed. The latest stint I did was when we visited New York and to please our French friends based there we brought along some. I always succeed in passing probably because of my innocent look :-)

So why am talking about this? Well, Lore of Culinarty is hosting an interesting food blog event on Original Recipes. And I am pretty sure you haven't seen nor tasted something like this before. And since its my second edition of my Friday Dose of Chocolate I'll be sharing this Original Chocolate recipe, my Chocolate Saucisson. Don't be deceived they are sweet. Kids will surely love them and adults as well. You can serve them right after a good meal with a cup of strong coffee.

(By the way, sorry for not visiting your blogs yesterday I wasn't at home. We had some family affairs to attend to.)

Chocolate Saucisson

125 g of dark chocolate
50 g of butter
150 g of chopped hazelnuts
12 pieces of Pims soft chocolate-orange cookies (you can replace it with genoise like chocolate cookies with orange marmalade fillings)
100 g of dried raisins
6 tablespoons of icing sugar
3 tablespoons of Amaretto or Cognac (optional)

Melt the chocolate in bain-marie or micro-wave oven. With the help of spatula mix well the chocolate to help it make shiny. Add the butter in the melted chocolate. Crush with your hands the Pim's soft cookies. Mix all the ingredients except the icing sugar. The alcohol is optional, omit it if it's for kids. Put them in the fridge for about thirty minutes. Check the consistency. It should be still a little bit soft and manageable for shaping. Put them in a parchment paper and roll as if you are shaping a long sausage. Once you have shaped them roll them over icing sugar. Wrap them with alluminum foils or parchment paper and keep in your fridge for minimum of seven hours. It is advised you cut them in front of your guests so they can still see the shape of your chocolate saucisson.

You can check my other chocolate recipes:

Chocolate Creme Brulée
Mini-Dacquoise cake in Chocolate Creme Chantilly
Profiterole with Lychee ice-cream and Cherry Chocolate Sauce

* For my French readers: you will find the french version of this recipe of "saucisson en chocolat" here: http://www.lesfoodies.com/hilda/recette/saucisson-en-chocolat