Chocolate Biscotti Tart

DEAR SOS: Granita, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant in Malibu, serves many creative dishes, but I was truly impressed by the chocolate mousse tart with chocolate biscotti crust. It was a new take on an old favorite that I’d love to be able to make for company.

--MEREDITH

DEAR MEREDITH: As you can tell by the nutritional analysis, this is a very rich dish, not for the faint-hearted. Besides that, be prepared for a few hours in the kitchen. You can purchase the biscotti to save time, but if you do make them from scratch, it will be effort well spent.

GRANITA’S CHOCOLATE BISCOTTI TART

10 Chocolate Biscotti

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup ground pecans or other nuts

1 cup semisweet chocolate, melted

3/4 cup caramel topping

Filling

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

To prepare crust, grind Chocolate Biscotti to make 2 cups crumbs. Mix crumbs in bowl with melted butter and ground nuts until well combined. Place 6 (4-inch) tart pans on baking sheet. Press crumb mixture onto bottoms of rings and up sides. Bake at 350 degrees 10 minutes. Remove tart shells from oven and remove rings from shells. Refrigerate shells on baking sheet until ready to use.

Cut 6 strips of wax paper 17x1 1/2 inches. Spread melted chocolate evenly over strips. Let chocolate strips cool slightly, then wrap evenly around outside of tart shell. Leave wax paper in place.

Spoon 2 tablespoons caramel topping into each tart shell. Replace shells in refrigerator until needed.

Divide cooled Filling among 6 biscotti shells. Refrigerate 2 hours. When ready to serve, whip cream until thick. From pastry bag pipe cream onto each tart. Gently peel wax paper off outside of tarts and serve at once. Makes 6 tarts, or 12 servings.

Each serving contains about:

754 calories; 229 mg sodium; 192 mg cholesterol; 56 grams fat; 40 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 0.32 gram fiber.

Chocolate Biscotti

2 cups butter

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup Valrhona cocoa powder or other good-quality cocoa powder

3 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons milk

1 cup chocolate chips

In bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix until incorporated. Mix in vanilla.

In separate bowl combine cocoa, flour and baking powder. Mix 1 cup of dry mixture into batter. Mix 1 tablespoon milk into batter. Continue mixing, alternating cocoa mixture and milk until all ingredients are well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Butter and flour 13x9-inch baking pan. Spread batter evenly into pan. Bake at 350 degrees 45 minutes or until firm to touch. Remove from pan and let cool thoroughly. Wrap and freeze dough until needed, or cut off some and freeze remainder, as needed.

When ready to serve, cut dough in 1/2-inch slices. Place slices on wire rack on top of baking sheet. Bake at 250 degrees 20 minutes. Cookies should be crisp. Makes 26 (9-inch) cookies.

Filling

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup semisweet chocolate, melted

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

In bowl soak gelatin in cold water. Bring 1 cup heavy whipping cream just to boil, then add to gelatin and blend well. Add melted chocolate to gelatin mixture and mix well. Set aside

In separate bowl combine eggs, 1/2 cup remaining cream and vanilla. Add egg mixture to gelatin mixture and combine thoroughly. Let pudding mixture cool before using.