El Bocadillo de la Infancia
El Bocadillo de la Infancia·(el bo-kah-dee-yo de lah een-fahn-see-ah)
Mañanas y Meriendas: The Rhythms of Morning and Afternoon
Four-thirty in the afternoon, backpacks hit the floor, the aluminum foil crackles on the counter, and the bread knife scrapes through a sturdy supermarket baguette. Nobody has time for elaborate baking, just bare hands snapping a bar of dark chocolate, scattering shards over the crumb, and finishing with peppery olive oil and flaky sea salt. The residual heat of toasted bread barely melts the chocolate, the oil bridges the sweet and savory, and the salt punches up the depth of the cacao. No double boilers, no pastry bags. Press the crust down hard, hand it over, and let them eat on the move.
Ingredients
- artisanal baguette or ciabatta1 med
- dark chocolate bar3 1/2 oz
- extra virgin olive oil3 tbsp
- flaky sea salt1/2 tsp
Method
- 01
Lightly toast the bread.
Place the biased slices on a baking sheet under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes, or pop them in a toaster, until they are just golden and crispy on the outside but still tender inside.
- 02
Assemble the chocolate on the warm bread.
While the bread is still hot, immediately place two or three squares of dark chocolate onto each slice so the residual heat begins to soften the cacao from the bottom up.
- 03
Flash in the oven if needed.
If the bread wasn't hot enough to yield the chocolate, put the assembled toasts back under the broiler for exactly 30 seconds. You want the chocolate to hold its shape but yield immediately when bitten, not melt into a puddle.
- 04
Finish with olive oil and salt.
Generously drizzle the top of the chocolate and the edges of the bread with the extra virgin olive oil, then finish with a hearty pinch of flaky sea salt directly on the chocolate.
- 05
Serve immediately.
Eat while the bread is warm, the crust cracks, and the chocolate is yielding.
Notes
Use a real chocolate bar, not chips.
Chocolate chips contain stabilizers designed to prevent melting. Buy a solid, high-quality dark chocolate bar (60% to 70% cacao) for the proper velvety texture.
Do not use standard table salt.
Table salt will aggressively over-salt the dish and ruin the textural crunch. Seek out flaky finishing salt like Maldon.
From Cook Spanish in America.