The
biggest challenge with presenting this chocolate sea salt crostini
recipe is getting people to stop thinking, "dessert," and start
thinking, "great special occasion savory snack." Not that there's
anything wrong with this as a dessert (it's actually Michele's
"favorite" dessert), but for my money it makes for a better, and very
unique, hors d'oeuvre.Speaking of money, you're going to need a little bit extra to do this recipe right. For this to work as a savory bite, the chocolate must be very dark, bittersweet, and world-class. Look for names that are hard to pronounce, and labels with percentage symbols are always a good sign (the higher %, the better for this).
For the bread, you're going to want to find your town's best baguette. The extra virgin olive oil should robust, peppery, and of the highest quality. Lastly, the salt must absolutely be the crystallized, flaky sea salt shown herein.
Once all these ingredients are assembled, the actual procedure is quite simple, and produces an impressive bite. The marriage of warm, crispy-edged bread, peppery olive oil, bittersweet chocolate, and briny sea salt is sublime. I think this is perfect for a holiday cocktail party, served right along side the rest of the savory appetizers.
Of
course, if you're just not a chocolate hors d'oeuvre kind of person,
and want to adapt this for a sweet treat, feel free. In that case, you
can use a slightly sweeter chocolate, and maybe an olive oil from the
lighter, fruitier end of the spectrum.