You Should Make Waffled Chocolate Sandwiches

Buying the "right" amount of ingredients for recipe testing can be challenging. Sometimes I buy too little, and have to haul my butt back to the store, and sometimes I'll nail something a little sooner than expected and be left with leftovers. Such was the case when making these grilled sausage sandwiches; I was left with a whole mini batard, which was not so much a "problem" as an opportunity.

Thanks to the sausage sandwiches, I was fairly played out on savory, so my mind wandered toward the sweet. I did not feel like making a bread pudding or anything else baked (it's getting to warm for that), but then I remembered the chocolate sandwich, a simple combination of French bread (usually a baguette) and dark chocolate.

You can toast the bread and soften the chocolate under the broiler, but I decided to use my waffle maker, as is my custom. (It uses less power and generates less heat, two things that are important to me.)

Ideally, I would want to make this sandwich with a high-quality bar of dark chocolate, but all I had were baking morsels, and they worked just fine. (This kind of chocolate is designed to keep its shape when heated, however, so grab a bar if you want a smoother melt.)

I sliced the bartard into fairly thin slices, between 1/4 and 1/2 an inch, then brushed the outsides with olive oil. I added a small mound of chocolate chips to the center of an un-oiled piece of bread, added a pinch of salt, and closed the sandwich with the other piece of bread.

I set the little panino in the center of my waffle iron, which was set to medium-high heat, then closed it, using a kitchen towel to help press down on the top of the waffle maker. I let it cook for a couple of minutes, until the outside was crispy and golden brown on the edges.

It was very good.

I made another one, then another one, then one with a small dollop of strawberry jam. All were great. They were sweet and decadent, but not cloying. Still, I had a hard time eating more than two, as they are small but mighty with intense flavors. As always, the waffled pattern created extra surface area for crisping, and the combination of melted chocolate, warm, lightly griddled bread, and a hint of salt (or strawberry) was a perfect little afternoon treat.

To make your own, all you need is crusty bread, dark chocolate, and some sort of oil. Olive oil is a classic option, but I wouldn't blame you for wilding out with bacon grease, nor would I be mad if you added bacon bits to the inside of the sandwich. No matter how you build it, make sure the bread is fairly thin--in the 1/4-1/2 inch range--and the outsides are brushed with oil. Cook in waffle iron set to medium-high heat until it's lightly toasted and the chocolate is melted, which should take two or three minutes (the perfect amount of time for an emergency dessert).