No-Bake Romanian Chocolate Biscuit Salami (Salam de Biscuiți)
This No-Bake Romanian Chocolate Biscuit Salami is a simple childhood dessert made with plain biscuits, dark cocoa, butter, milk, raisins, and a touch of rum. It’s rich, chocolatey, and perfect for hot summer days because there’s no oven involved — just 2 minutes on the stove and a little patience while it chills in the fridge.
Ingredients
- 200 g plain cookies
- 2 tbsp / 30 g sugar
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 45 g dark cocoa powder
- 120 ml milk
- a pinch of salt
- 50 g raisins
- 30 ml rum
Instructions
- Start by placing the raisins in a small bowl and pouring the rum over them. Let them soak for about 10–15 minutes, while you prepare the rest of the recipe.
- Place the cookies in a sealing bag and close it well. Using a rolling pin, gently crush the cookies. Be careful not to break the bag, unless you enjoy cleaning cookie crumbs from every corner of your kitchen.You don’t want to turn them into powder. You need a mix of crumbs and small pieces, because those biscuit pieces are what give the salami its lovely texture when sliced.
- In a small pan, but big enough to add the cookies later, add the sugar, cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, and the milk. Mix everything well, then place the pan on the stove for about 2 minutes, just enough to warm the milk and dissolve the sugar.
- Remove the pan from the heat, add the unsalted butter cut into small pieces, and stir until completely melted.
- Add the crushed cookies and mix until they are well coated in the chocolate mixture.
- Then add the soaked raisins together with the rum they were soaking in, and mix everything well.
- Place the mixture in the middle of a piece of cling wrap/plastic wrap and shape it into a log, like a salami. Yes, I know it does not look very appetizing at this stage. But believe me, it is well worth it.
- Wrap it tightly in the cling wrap, twist the ends, and try to make it as round and compact as possible. Tie knots at both ends to keep the shape.
- Place it in the fridge for at least 3 hours, until it hardens.
- To serve, remove the cling wrap, cut the biscuit salami into slices, and enjoy.
Notes
A Note About the Cookies
For this recipe, you need simple, plain cookies — the kind you would normally enjoy with tea or coffee.
They should be dry enough to absorb the chocolate mixture, but not too rich or buttery. Think tea biscuits, Marie biscuits, Petit Beurre-style biscuits, or plain butter cookies.
Avoid shortbread, oatmeal cookies, cream-filled cookies, or anything too soft or too rich, because they will change the texture.
I used Leibniz Original Butter Cookies, and they worked beautifully.
You can also roll it in shredded coconut or dust it with cocoa powder before slicing, or simply enjoy it as it is. I kept mine simple, because sometimes simple is already perfect.
For a Kid-Friendly Version
I used rum because we don’t have children around, but if you are making this for kids, simply skip the rum.
You can soak the raisins in warm milk, warm water, or even orange juice instead.