Monte Bianco Recipe

• 2 (14.8-ounce) jars roasted chestnuts, such as Minerva brand
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds, ground
• 7 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 tablespoons Cognac or rum
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Combine chestnuts, milk, sugar, fennel seeds, and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
2. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, stirring often and breaking up the chestnuts as you stir, until milk has been absorbed, about 10 to 13 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a pot of simmering water; set aside.
4. When chestnuts are cooked, rice them (or put them through a food mill fitted with the medium disk) into a large mixing bowl.
5. Add Cognac and melted chocolate and fold together until smooth, with no pockets of unmixed chestnuts (it will resemble cookie dough).
6. Pack it into a smaller bowl, cover with plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
7. At serving time, whip cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form.
8. Rice chestnut dough onto a large platter, keeping the ricer centered on the platter and lifting the ricer higher each time you fill it so that the threads of chestnut fall lightly into a mountain.
9. (You can use the food mill for this, but its not as easy as with a ricer.)
10. Drop about 1/2 of the whipped cream by big spoonfuls onto the mountain.
11. Serve at table, and pass the rest of the whipped cream.

chestnuts, milk, sugar, fennel seeds, chocolate, cognac, heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla

Taken from www.chowhound.com/recipes/monte-bianco-10765 (may not work)