“According to Mark Zanger’s American History Cookbook, the Toasted Chocolate Sandwich first appeared in a 1938 collection of recipes from a ladies auxiliary group in Idaho,” explains author Susan Russo. “It consisted of nestling several pieces of a Hershey’s milk chocolate bar between two crunchy slices of toasted bread.” Rest assured, dear readers, that this chocolate sandwich recipe that follows is a far cry from Hershey’s plunked on Wonder bread. Oh so far. Although while on the topic of white bread and chocolate, in France they oft forego toasting the bread and just plunk a lovely chocolate bar on a torn baguette. We daresay that would do the trick quite nicely, too.–Renee Schettler Rossi

Two slices of chocolate sandwich, made with toasted French bread, chocolate, and a sprinkling of salt on a wire rack.

Chocolate Sandwich

5 / 2 votes
This chocolate sandwich recipe is crazy easy to make and requires just bread, chocolate, olive oil, and a smidgen of sea salt. Chances are you’ve got those at the ready.
David Leite
CourseSnacks
CuisineFrench
Servings1 to 2 servings
Calories356 kcal
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes

Ingredients 

  • 2 slices crusty French bread, (each about 1/2 inch [12 mm] thick)
  • 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 to 2 ounces your favorite milk or dark chocolate
  • A couple pinches coarse sea salt

Instructions 

  • Preheat your broiler.
  • Place both slices of bread on a baking sheet and broil until the top is lightly toasted, 30 to 60 seconds.
  • Flip the bread over, drizzle with oil, and arrange the chocolate on top. (Ideally the chocolate would be about the thickness of a Hershey’s bar and evenly cover the surface of the bread.)
  • Broil just until the edges of the bread are golden and the chocolate begins to melt, 30 to 60 seconds. You don’t want to melt the chocolate completely. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with salt. If a closed sandwich is preferred, sandwich the slices together. Grin and indulge.

Notes

Chocolate Sandwich Variation

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Sandwich
Omit the olive oil and salt. Spread 1 tablespoon of your favorite creamy or crunchy peanut butter on the bread, cover with squares of either dark or milk chocolate, and if desired, add sliced bananas. Broil, grin, eat.
Chocolate and Raspberry Jam Panini
Omit the olive oil and salt. Cover the bread with squares of dark chocolate and 1 to 2 tablespoons raspberry jam and sandwich the slices together. Make the sandwich in a panini grill or waffle iron. Press, grin, eat.
The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches Cookbook

Adapted From

The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches

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Nutrition

Serving: 1 portionCalories: 356 kcalCarbohydrates: 41 gProtein: 8 gFat: 18 gSaturated Fat: 8 gMonounsaturated Fat: 7 gTrans Fat: 1 gCholesterol: 1 mgSodium: 296 mgFiber: 5 gSugar: 10 g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe?Mention @leitesculinaria or tag #leitesculinaria!
Recipe © 2011 Susan Russo. Photo © 2011 Matt Armendariz. All rights reserved.

Recipe Testers’ Reviews

No words can do this chocolate sandwich recipe justice. I will try, just the same.

I really loved the sound of the raspberry preserves and dark chocolate variation and the idea of using a panini press. Of course I don’t have a panini press, so I chose to enlist my trusty Belgian waffler. I cut my crusty French bread at a bit more than an inch, spread some butter on the outsides of the bread, coated the insides with the preserves, and laid 1 slice of the prepared bread on the hot waffle iron. I quickly added a few squares of Hershey’s special dark chocolate, topped it with the other slice of bread, and closed the waffle iron. After 3 minutes, I was confronted with an amazing toasty, waffle-y sandwich filled with raspberry and oozing dark chocolate. Truly a little bit of heaven from my trusty old waffle iron.

I ended up with a beautiful classic baguette just out of the oven and still warm. We cut the baguette straight across so the slices were not very large. For the first iteration, we tried it open-faced. For the second variation, we had the sandwich closed, which we preferred. We also felt that 2 ounces chocolate was excessive and did not make for a good balance between the bread and the chocolate.

While coarse sea salt is called for, make sure that your salt isn’t too coarse. We liked the little bursts of saltiness from the small chunks of coarse salt but didn’t care for the bigger chunks. Timingwise, we did 52 seconds on the first side and 36 seconds on the second.

We then tried a panini variation using 2 different flavor combinations: raspberry with dark chocolate and strawberry with milk chocolate. The purist in me had hoped that the original version was better or at least as good as the panini variation, but this was not the case. The panini were far superior—the texture of the sandwich was gentler with a more pleasant mouthfeel and didn’t have any of the hard edges of the toasted crusty bread. The panini version was so good that I even liked the milk chocolate sandwich (I’m not a milk chocolate fan).

This chocolate sandwich makes a very quick treat that you can whip up at the last minute. I imagine that this would be a fantastic dessert for a party.

You could dress it up with some ground dried lavender or fennel pollen for an extra “wow” factor! I used a cranberry walnut baguette, which was delicious, but I think a plain baguette would’ve let the olive oil shine more. I didn’t sandwich the slices of bread together because I wanted to taste more of the chocolate.

Given the choice between eating this toasted chocolate sandwich and a fresh pain au chocolat, the croissant is going to win every time. However, if you need a quick indulgence at home beyond just a square of chocolate, this isn’t a bad option. Obviously it would behoove you to use chocolate that you already fancy and a high-quality bread, and you should eat the sandwich while it’s still warm but not going to burn your taste buds off.

I didn’t try the variations, purely because I was interested in the mix of olive oil and chocolate (which turned out to be quite subtle), but I’d say you can’t go wrong with slathering other friends of chocolate on the bread. I couldn’t for the life of me find a whole French loaf, so I ended up with a baguette and made 2 mini sandwiches instead. I only used 1 1/8 ounces chocolate for the 4 slices, which was plenty. I used 72% Ghiradelli Intense Dark chocolate. It resulted in a crunchy, mouth-scraping experience, but that’s to be expected with crusty bread. Open-faced versus closed didn’t make a difference. I would’ve been happy with just the 1 smaller sandwich, though, and thought the yield was closer to 2 servings. As mentioned, I couldn’t really detect the olive oil—it may have made for a softer texture, but I’m not sure.




About David Leite

I count myself lucky to have received three James Beard Awards for my writing as well as for Leite’s Culinaria. My work has also appeared in The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Yankee, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and more.


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Recipe Rating




6 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    This reminds me of the bread and sprengle (soft chocolate sprinkles) treat my Frisian Bepe (grandmother) made for me.

  2. 5 stars
    Hello everybody, as a French person I can confirm that “in France, they oft forego toasting the bread and just plunk a lovely chocolate bar on a torn baguette” 🙂 So in a need of new recipes and inspiration I tried this chocolate sandwich, which was great! My kids loved it! Very often we mix chocolate with what we call here “fleur d’oranger.” You should try it! It’s delicious!

    1. Thank you for confirming that what I’ve seen in France is actually quite common, Megane! Greatly appreciate you taking the time to let us know. So glad that you and your kids love this as much as we do, and thanks, too, for sharing your suggestion!

  3. Growing up in Germany I used to buy fresh Broetchen and put 2 Riegel of Milka Chocolate (yes, it has to be the purple cow) in one and that would be my snack. Trust me, it doesn’t have to be french bread and it doesn’t have to be warm either. Good bread and good chocolate make a sublime meal no matter what.

    1. Dagmar, those are words of wisdom. Many kind thanks for taking the time to share your experience.