Ingredients
• 100g dried cherries (can be substituted with dried cranberries)
• ¼ cup brandy
• 250ml double thick cream
• 100g 70% dark chocolate
• 3 x 80g milk chocolate slabs
• 100g almonds, lightly toasted in a dry pan and roughly chopped (or a mix of almonds, hazelnuts and pistachio)
• 2 Tbs cocoa
• 1 Tbs Selati icing Snow
TO SERVE:
• Extra cocoa and Selati Icing snow, for dusting
• Fresh cherries
• Vanilla ice cream
Instructions
Warm the brandy and pour it over the dried cherries.
Allow the cherries to stand for at least half an hour, then drain them and set aside.
Break the chocolate into blocks and place in a glass bowl along with the cream.
Place the bowl over a pot of gently simmering water, ensuring that the water does not touch the bowl.
Stir occasionally and remove from the heat the minute the chocolate has melted.
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir through. Allow the mixture to cool for at least an hour to make it easier to shape.
Once cooled, dust a large rectangle of baking paper with cocoa and spoon out the chocolate mix in a straight line of 20cm down the middle.
Roll it closed to form a long sausage and massage gently until you have a nicely round fat roll.
Twist the ends closed like a giant Christmas cracker.
Place chocolate salami in the fridge for at least four hours to firm up. (This will keep in your fridge for a good week, so it’s an excellent pudding to make in advance.) You want this to be soft and luscious, so remove the chocolate salami from the fridge 30-60 minutes before serving.
I am being deliberately vague here because if it’s forty degrees C in the shade, it’s obviously going to be softer a whole lot faster.
Place the chocolate salami on a lovely platter, dust with icing sugar and cocoa for the pretty, and garnish with truckloads of berries.