Last year I attended the most fabulous dinner party for a soon-to-be married couple at a winery in Sonoma. The rehearsal dinner party was hosted by the groom’s mother and father at the beautiful Estate Restaurant and we ate outside under a shady grape arbor.
Last year I attended the most fabulous dinner party for a soon-to-be married couple at a winery in Sonoma. The rehearsal dinner party was hosted by the groom’s mother and father at the beautiful Estate Restaurant and we ate outside under a shady grape arbor.
One of the desserts we enjoyed was a delicious chocolate budino tart with a fantastic pine nut crust and a light sprinkle of sea salt on the top. I loved this dessert so much I decided to try to replicate it myself with this Chocolate Budino Tarts with Pine Nut Crust.
I used Thomas Keller’s Pine Nut Crust recipe for the crust and I used a separate chocolate budino recipe for the filling that calls for a combination of bittersweet chocolate with a tiny amount of milk chocolate, lots of egg yolks and cream.
The resulting budino is super smooth and satiny with a decadent bittersweet chocolate flavor. The pine nut crust is the perfect accompaniment to the chocolate with its buttery, slightly sweet and piney flavor.
The finishing touch of a sprinkle of sea salt enhances the chocolate flavor making this a most enjoyable dessert for any chocolate lover. Here is how you can make your own.
Filling: You can find the recipe for the chocolate budino here. Start by preheating the oven to 300 degrees. You will also need a roasting pan to create a water bath for baking the budino. The budino is baked in an 8″ x 8″ baking pan that will fit into the roasting pan. Set pans aside.
Melt the chocolates in a double boiler over simmering water until smooth. While the chocolate is melting, whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar.
Heat the milk in a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave until hot but not boiling. Slowly whisk the milk into the egg mixture until combined. Strain the egg/milk mixture into a medium bowl and set aside.
Mix the melted chocolate into the strained egg/milk mixture and stir until combined. In a pyrex measuring cup heat the cream in the microwave until hot but not boiling. Stir the cream into the chocolate mixture. I strained this mixture again before transferring to baking pan.
Transfer filling to 8″ x 8″ baking pan and cover with aluminum foil. Place covered baking pan into roasting pan and fill roasting pan with hot tap water to come half way up the sides of the baking pan. Bake the filling for 50 to 60 minutes.
Remove pan from water bath and whisk filling until smooth. Pass filling thru a strainer into another shallow pan and let cool completely without stirring. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Crust: You can find the entire recipe for the crust here. Preheat the oven to 350. You will also need 6 individual ramekins.
Place pine nuts in food processor and pulse a few times. Add the flour and sugar and pulse until the nuts are finely ground.
Place the butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix together with the egg and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and mix until a dough forms.
Chill the dough for around 15 minutes. Divide the chilled dough into 6 pieces that will fit inside each of the ramekins. I used 89 grams of dough per ramekin and rolled each round out to 1/8″ thick. For this recipe you will probably only use half the dough in this recipe. The extra dough can be frozen and used at another time.
Transfer the rolled dough to the ramekin and press down into the base and up the sides, trimming the excess off the rim with a knife. Continue with all the ramekins. Chill the dough in the ramekins for 20 minutes before baking.
Bake the crusts for 10 to 15 minutes, rotate the ramekins and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Let the crusts cool completely before filling with budino.
Assembly: Fill the completely cooled tart crusts with the chilled budino filling and smooth over the top with an offset spatula and chill in the fridge before serving. Right before serving, sprinkle a little sea salt over the filling.
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