Chocolate Salami

Embrace any change - that is all that comes to my mind right now. I like one of  Martin Luther King Jr. quotes: "the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy". Though routine and order are great I believe it is the change and the challenge what make us grow and make us stronger.
I started this blog to challenge myself and break out of the rut. Since then I have had some incredible things happen to me. The changes are not related to this blog, but I feel that "Life in Chocolate" has had an incredible positive influence on my life and I am very grateful for that. Here is one more chocolate recipe to celebrate my happiness:) My family and friends looove this chocolate salami:) One time I was making it late at night so our friend could take it on a cross-country trip with him! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

a little over 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

5 tbsp milk 

250 gr shortbread cookies

1 cup walnuts

3/4 cups butter at room temperature

In a small pan mix together sugar, cocoa and milk. Put it on a stove on a low heat setting and stir until all the ingredients are well mixed (2-4 minutes). Leave it on a stove till it starts boiling (approx 10 minutes). Stir occasionally. Once the liquid starts boiling, take it off the stove and let it cool down for a couple of minutes. Stir in the butter and mix until it fully dissolves. Pour the liquid into a large bowl.

Put half of cookies and half of walnuts in a food processor and run it till they are coarsely crumbled. Break the other half of cookies and nuts with your hands into rough pieces.

Start adding the cookie-walnut mixture to the bowl and mix. The mixture should be viscous, with the texture resembling raw ground beef. Divide the mixture into 3 portions. Prepare 3 sheets of parchment paper. Place each portion on one end of the prepared sheet and with your hands shape the mass in the form of a sausage. Roll it up in the parchment paper. Make sure the mixture doesn't lose the form and stretch from the sides while you are rolling it up. Roll the parchment paper in aluminum foil to further secure the form. Repeat with the rest of the mixture. 

Place the "salamis" in the freezer.  Slice right before serving with a sharp knife. Keep in the fridge or the freezer.  Serve cold.

Tips:

- You can use cookies and nuts in different proportions, depending on your taste

- Secure the salami tight in aluminum foil as it can become loose and can break when being sliced

- If it breaks when you slice it, place it in the fridge or leave in the kitchen for some time, so it can warm up and get some moisture
- You can omit the parchment paper and roll it straight in the foil

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

It took me quite a while to come up with the name for my blog. And I believe that I found The One. Life in Chocolate has both figurative and literal meaning for me. Figuratively it is being in a happy place: being grateful for what I have, being satisfied with who I am, being surrounded and feeling blessed to have an amazing and caring family. It doesn't mean that everything is perfect and I have nothing to work on or to wish for, but I believe that I have the foundation, the most important things, all the other stuff is achievable!
The literal meaning of my blog's name comes from the fact that my favorite food of all times is chocolate:) You can find chocolate in its different forms in my house at any given time. As a teenager I used to come home from school, call my mom's cellphone and say: "Mom, we don't have anything to eat". She would say: " No, we have soup, and there is pasta dish in the fridge." And I would answer: "But we don't have chocolate":) 
As I always have it ready to eat, I make chocolate desserts very rarely. But these cookies made their way into my cooking repertoire. One day we were going to my father-in-law and I felt like making something special for him. He is into chocolate like I am and I decided to go with these cookies. From that day he asks for them all the time. I have to routinely fight with my Man and other family members so they don't I eat all the cookies and I have at least something left for my father-in-law.
Through experimenting I found my perfect cooking time for these cookies - 11 minutes 30 seconds. But it can be different for your oven. I take them out and the top is still soft to touch and maybe a tiny bit undercooked, but they get there during 5 minutes of cool down. They turn out soft, chewy, and with a right amount of sweetness. No amount I make ever seems enough;)

 

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick of butter, room temperature

1/2 cup golden brown sugar

6 tbsp white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl combine butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg and vanilla using a mixer. Add the ingredients from the first bowl and mix thoroughly.

Add in the chocolate chips and mix with a wooden spoon until all the chips are evenly distributed and covered with the batter.

Preheat the oven to 350°F/ 180°C. Line the baking dish with parchment paper. Drop tablespoons of the dough 2 inches from each other and from the rims, because the cookies are going to expand. 

Baking time is 10-12 minutes depending on the oven. The cookies are ready once the edges are light brown and the top is light and soft to touch. Take the cookies out and let them sit for 5 minutes.

Makes 18 cookies

Enjoy!