A Far Rockaway, Queens, N.Y. entrepreneur’s zeal in 2005 to create a great tasting, fat-free biscotti, has turned into one of the New York City area’s hottest new dessert companies.

Today, Gourmet Lite Bake Shoppe in Oceanside, N.Y. produces four flavors of fat-free cookie bites (chocolate fudge, oatmeal raisin, vanilla and cappuccino marble) and two flavors of sugar free cookie bites (chocolate fudge and chocolate chip). Each flavor comes in 8 and 16 ounce packages that retail for $3.99 and $5.99, respectively.

From its 3,000-square-foot commercial bakery, Gourmet Lite produces more than 6,000 units a week that are distributed in more than 300 retail locations in the tri-state area, including such major retailers as: King Kullen, Shop-Rite, Zabar’s and Fairway.

Matt Liebowitz, 44, toiled in his wife’s kitchen for two months baking and tasting his biscotti, never happy with his outcome, until a professional and chef and friend dissected the ingredients in the product he was trying to emulate and found it was not really fat free. One afternoon, after another day of baking frustration, his wife came home and tasted a batch he was just about to throw away and said “wow.”

All Gourmet Lite dessert products have no trans or saturated fats, no cholesterol, are 100-percent nut free and dairy free. The products are all certified kosher and parve.

Before founding the company, Liebowitz was a distributor of food products in the New York area for many years.

Gourmet Lite participates in Long Island Harvest, where it provides a few thousand pounds of unsold bake products every few months to families in need.