This addictive, no-cook chocolate treat made with cookies and cocoa powder was probably invented before or during WWI, when processed cocoa and chocolate were available and people wanted to preserve gas by not cooking. This pareve dessert became popular with Jews and non-Jews alike before WWII. I doubt it if it is very popular in Berlin today, but it has remained a favorite in other places where immigrants brought the recipe. It goes by salami di cioccolate in Italy and shokoladnaya kolbasa in Russia. From my time in Israel in the early 1970s, I knew as knackknick, Hebrew for sausage.
Schokoladenwurst
April 02, 2021
Ingredients
- 9ounces good quality 70% bittersweet chocolate
- 3tablespoons brewed coffee
- 2large eggs
- 2cups whole almonds, coarsely ground
- 2tablespoons rum
- ¾cup sugar
- 1bar marzipan
Yield: 54 slices
Preparation
- Step 1
Stir the chocolate with the coffee in a saucepan, heating until the chocolate melts. Pour into a bowl and stir in the eggs, ground almonds, rum, and sugar. (Note: If you are concerned about the raw eggs, use pasteurized, available in most grocery stores.) Then refrigerate for about a half hour until it hardens like a soft dough.
- Step 2
While it cools divide the marzipan into 3 pieces and form into logs about 5 3/4 inches long and 1/2 inch in diameter.
- Step 3
When the chocolate is cool enough to mold, roll it out onto a lightly greased surface until thin. Score the surface into three sections and carefully roll and press the chocolate around the marzipan and form into long cylinders. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate a few hours or overnight.
- Step 4
Cut the cylinder into three pieces, slicing one into about 18 pieces to serve. Wrap the other pieces in tin foil and freeze for whenever the craving strikes.
Adapted from Joan Nathan’s cookbook King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World