CHESTNUT MINI-TARTS

November 11, 2019

Autumn wouldn't be the same without chestnuts' rustic flavour, and for those who love this seasonal ingredient, this is a quick and simple treat to enjoy.

On the 11th of November, St. Martin's Day is celebrated once again, and as it should, chestnuts are eaten along with jeropiga wine, just as tradition dictates. Although I like the roasted chestnuts that we buy on street stands, at home I only cook them in water with some salt, a cinnamon stick and sometimes add bay leaf.

And when I cook chestnuts, I always try to cook some extra in order to try a recipe that I have saved to prepare at this time of year, as is the case with these chestnut mini-pies.

The ingredients

To make these chestnut pies, only 4 main ingredients are needed for the filling, plus the puff pastry, and they are: boiled chestnuts, eggs, sugar, and butter.

Puff pastry - alternatively, shortcrust or other pie shell of your liking.
Chestnuts - I don't think this recipe works so well with roasted chestnuts instead of boiled ones, as they have to be reduced to puree, and the roasted ones are drier and crunchier, but if you have a powerful food processor that can grind them to a consistency of almost flour, for sure it can be an alternative for spending those leftover roasted chestnuts.
Sugar - the recipe that inspired me to make these mini-pies used refined white sugar, but I decided to switch to dark brown sugar because it adds a touch of caramel that I think matches very well with the chestnut flavor.
Butter
Eggs
Vanilla - is an optional ingredient, but it also matches the flavor of the chestnut.

How to make

As I usually buy rectangular puff pastry, and the pies are round in shape (and also so as not to waste dough) I rolled the dough until it formed a roll and cutted the dough into 8 parts, as is done for the base of the custard tarts (you can see here in video starting at 35min).
Each portion is placed at the base of the respective form with the spiral shape facing upwards; wet your fingers in water and press the dough towards the edges of the form, repeating the operation for the remaining tartlets.
While preparing the filling, you should keep the pies in the refrigerator so that the puff pastry doesn't get to room temperature, because the cooler it is, the crispier it gets when cooking in the oven (if you make this recipe on a hotter day you can even put the tartlets in the freezer - provided it is between 15 to 30 minutes).
Chestnuts must be previously boiled (with or without shell) in salted water and a cinnamon stick. Fresh or frozen chestnuts can be used.
The chestnuts are crushed in a food processor or you can also use the passe-vite to reduce the chestnuts to puree.
The remaining ingredients are mixed - eggs, butter, sugar, and vanilla, wrapping well and to stay well connected.
After cooked and peeled, I weighed the chestnuts and had about 350 gr at the time, which is what I used in this recipe; that's why my mini-pies have a generous amount of filling ... That's also why I reduced the portion of cooked chestnuts in the list of ingredients, ideally between 250 to 300 gr.
The filling is divided by the pies lined with the puff pastry, and cooked in the oven.
They can be served plain or sprinkled with a little powdered sugar.