Dark Chocolate Crostini
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cooking Time: 4 minutes
- Serves: 20
Most chocolate dessert recipes call for a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor of the chocolate. I decided to make the pairing more obvious and let the sweet and salty flavors really play off each other by sprinkling crunchy fleur de sel over rich dark chocolate.
Fleur de sel is a special kind of sea salt harvested in France. You can use kosher salt instead but I prefer sea salt for its intense, fresh flavor. The almonds help transform the crostini from a dessert into an appetizer (the excuse being that they’re a protein). Because Marcona almonds can be difficult to find, I recently substituted cashews drizzled with olive oil and the results were amazing!
- Part of Meal: Dessert
- Food Type: Parve
- Service Temp: Warm
- Special Diet: Vegetarian
- 1 baguette, sliced in 1/2-inch thick slices
- 1/4 cup(s) olive oil
- 2 bars of high quality bittersweet chocolate (such as Scharffen Berger Chocolate 62% semisweet), broken into large pieces (a little bit smaller than the white centers of the bread)
- 1/2 cup(s) Marcona almonds in oil and salt OR salted cashews drizzled with olive oil, roughly chopped with a knife
- 2 tablespoon(s) fleur de sel
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lay the slices of bread out on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Lightly brush the top of each piece of bread with olive oil. Toast the bread in the oven for 8 minutes until lightly browned on the edges.
3. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and place a piece of chocolate on each slice of bread. Put the crostini back in the oven for 2 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and carefully spread the chocolate evenly on the slice of bread.
5. Sprinkle each slice with marcona almonds or cashews and fleur de sel and serve immediately. If you want to prepare these crostini ahead of time you can add the chocolate to the bread and reheat them in a 350 degree oven for 1 minute, but you must sprinkle the nuts and salt immediately before serving.
Makes 20 crostini.