Russian Season

Chocolate Sausage may sound kind of gross, especially to vulnerable creatures like vegetarians or even semi-vegetarians. But, that’s how this sort of chocolate fudge candy was called when I and my sister were kids, and it was a typical Soviet home-made candy. Every time Mom would prepare this Chocolate Sausage, it was so tantalizing for us to wait until the candy would cool! Nowadays I often think of that feeling of great, unbearable impatience, a feeling that you constantly experience when you’re a kid and gradually lose as you grow up – and last night as I put the fudge into the fridge to let it sit there overnight, I proudly thought to myself: “Good, this is my fudge candy, I’m a big girl and I can wait patiently till it cools”. Later, I popped in to the kitchen to check it three times more. Because you know, it had to be controlled.

What actually made me think of Chocolate Sausage was Pegasuslegend’s lovely post about Rocky Road Fudge Candy, which I came across on FoodBuzz. This recipe made me feel so nostalgic! I tried to recall the Soviet Chocolate Sausage recipe to compare, but of course I couldn’t, so eventually Mom fished this recipe out of her culinary archives. Of course we had to revise and adapt the recipe a little bit. Where it called for very simple, basic ingredients such as raisins (alternatively, jellies – or even leftover toffees, in the most hard-core variation) and walnuts, we decided to use dried cranberries and cashew. We thought this might also work well with papaya, but for some reason all dried papaya had disappeared from the stores that day, so we bought cranberries. Cranberries lend the candy a pleasing hint of fruity sourness.

If you ever have a bizarre idea of having a Soviet-style party, you should keep this recipe in mind. The sweet does look like a sausage!

Ingredients

350g hard shortbread cookies
200g butter
4 tbsp sugar
100g cashew nuts
70g dried cranberries
5 tbsp milk
2 tbsp cocoa powder
A pinch of vanilla sugar

Crush the cashew nuts into small pieces.

Crush the cookies into crumbs.

Stir together cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla sugar, add the milk and stir until well blended and very thick.

Melt the butter without boiling, and stir the chocolate mixture into the butter.

Next, add crushed cookies, cashew and cranberries, stir everything thoroughly until a crumbly, thick, sticky texture.

Take sheets of baking paper and mould the mix into three firm medium-sized sausages.

Wrap them firmly in baking paper and let them cool in the fridge for 6 to 12 hours.

Serve in small batches as the candy melts quickly!