Chocolate Whore

Every Thanksgiving my friend, Hotel Goddess, has dinner at her place. We kinda deemed it the Benetton Thanksgiving since each person is from a different country. Benetton Thanksgiving is a little different. Although our hostess supplies the bird and some of the more traditional sides, we the guests must each bring a dish to represent our country of origin.

This is tough for me since I have no country of origin. Ok, I have three - Russia, Germany and England. But seriously, lets face it, these are not places known for great national dishes. A couple of years ago people complained about my Schnitzel and Borscht Souffle with Treacle Pudding, so now I bring some generic, origin-free dessert. Noone calls me on it and usually its all gone by last call.

This year I went the flourless chocolate route. Fair warning, if you make this be prepared to smoke out every chocolate whore in a 50 mile radius. Its not a terribly sweet dessert (except for the ganache), which is good for me since I don't like sweets. I did two test runs and everyone agreed it was a keeper (although several bitched it wasn't as good as my Creme Brulee and they would prefer to see that next year :)


Chocolate Pistachio Torte with Chocolate Ganache

Pistachio Paste

• 10 oz Pistachio, shelled
  
• 2 Tbls Sugar
  
• 2 Egg Whites
  

Torte

• 12 oz Bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  
• 1 stick Butter, room temp.
  
• 6 Eggs, separated
  
• 1/4 t Salt
  
• 2 Tbls Sugar
  
• 2 Tbls Brown sugar
  

Ganache

• 2 C Whipping cream
  
• 16 oz Bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  

1 To fix the pistachio paste process pistachios and sugar in a food processor until the nuts are finely ground. Add egg whites then blend well with wooden spoon. Cover and refrigerate for later. Actually this will keep for a couple of days if you want to make it ahead of time.

2 To fix the torte. Preheat oven to 350. Butter up a 9" springform pan, putting parchment around the bottom. Place chocolate in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring occassionally until completely melted (could also use a double boiler). Remove from heat and cool to touch.

3 Take 1/4 C of pistachio paste and reserve, put the rest in a large bowl, add butter (best to cube it up). Electric mix the butter and pistachio until blended, then add yolks one at time until blended. Then add the chocolate until blended.

4 In a separate bowl using clean beaters, beat egg white and salt until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar until stiff peaks form, cranking up mixer speed if necessary. Sift brown sugar over stiff whites and fold in.

5 Take stiff whites and blend it in three equal additions to the chocolate pistachio glob. (Trust me, it will eventually blend).

6 Pour the new glob into the buttered up springform and level with a spatula.

7 Bake for an hour or until your testing knife comes out with just a little batter attached. Transfer to cooling rack (or stovetop, like I do) and completely cool. This will keep for a day if you want to make it ahead of time, just Saran it and leave it on the counter.

8 For the ganache, just heat the cream in a saucepan until it starts to simmer. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth. This too can be made a day ahead, just cool it and stuff it in the fridge. Re-warm when ready to serve.


Servings: 12


Serve with whipped cream, chopped pistachios and a defibrillator.