from my orchid kitchen

Autumn is coming to an end, and I wanted to share another recipe for this product that represents this season - chestnut.

The ingredients

• Chestnuts - to obtain chestnut puree, we can cook fresh chestnuts or frozen ones. Just cook them in a little water and salt and you can add a cinnamon stick if you wish. Later on, they are mashed in a food processor or pass-vite.
• Cream - since the puree obtained from the chestnut is quite thick, it is the whipped cream that will add a little more lightness to the mousse.
• Brown sugar - I preferred to use brown sugar, simply because its flavor combines very well with that of chestnut, but you can substitute for white sugar or even coconut sugar.
• Port wine - it's an optional ingredient, simply to flavor the mousse, but it can be substituted by vanilla or another drink to your likings like Muscatel wine, whiskey, or rum.
• Chocolate - I didn't mention a specific amount of this ingredient, because I leave it up to each one of you. I used dark chocolate (70%) but alternatively, you can use milk chocolate.

How to make

• Cook the chestnuts in salted water (in the shell or frozen), and if you want, add a cinnamon stick. You can also use leftover cooked chestnuts.
• After cooked (peel if necessary) and mashed in puree, using a food processor or using the pass-vite.
• Allow to cool and then add Port Wine, incorporating well. In a bowl, whip the cream, gradually adding sugar until whipped cream is obtained. Carefully wrap the whipped cream in the puree so that it doesn't lose too much air.
• Divide the mousse into cups or glasses, and place in the refrigerator.
• To make the chocolate topping, melt the chocolate in a water bath or the microwave (every 15 seconds) and add about 1 teaspoon of water or milk, dissolving well, so that after going to the cold it stays creamy.
• Allow to cool slightly, and distribute the chocolate sauce in the bowls and then return to the refrigerator.
• Remove from the cold about 15 to 30 minutes before serving.

Chestnut mousse recipe

Ingredients

150 gr chestnut puree
1 tablespoon of Port Wine
2 tablespoons brown sugar
200 ml of cream
50 to 100 gr of dark chocolate bar

1. Put the cooled chestnut puree in a bowl and mix the Port wine.
2. In another bowl, whip the cream with the sugar.
3. Gradually incorporate the cream into the puree, but without beating. Divide the mousse into bowls, and place in the refrigerator.
4. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave and add 1 teaspoon of water or milk to it and mix well.
5. Let it cool slightly.
6. Divide the chocolate sauce by the bowls and return to the refrigerator. Remove from the cold 15 to 30 minutes before serving.

 

 

 

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This gluten-free dessert is a great light and moist cake made with an uncommon key ingredient - chestnut flour, with a very pleasant taste and making you want some more.

I already had the recipe for this chestnut cake saved a few years ago in my files, because at the time it was still difficult to find chestnut flour on stores. Nowadays this is no longer the case, at least in large urban centers, with sections of healthy food in supermarkets increasing in size and variety of products, and also with the increase in the number of stores that sell products for alternative diets.

What captivated me in this simple cake was not only the fact of using chestnut, an ingredient that I quite like, but also the use of cream instead of butter or oil as a source of fat on the recipe.

Here at home, everyone loved the cake, which is quite soft and slightly moist, and contrary to what you might think, the chestnut flour doesn't give the cake that flavor we find when we eat other desserts made with fresh chestnuts, but a soft flavor that contrasts very well with the lemon. Despite everything, anyone who wants can make this cake without adding the lemon zest and replacing it with vanilla.

The Ingredients

• Eggs
• Chestnut flour - this flour belongs to the group of alternative flours to serve in gluten-free diets, and basically results from finely ground dry nuts. There are many traditional recipes of Italian origin that use this flour, not only in sweet recipes but also in some savory and even bread.
• Baking powder - in addition to the whipped egg whites, baking powder is used to make this cake even fluffier.
• Sugar - the amount present allows it to be pleasantly sweet. Can be substituted for brown sugar or coconut sugar.
• Lemon zest - the lemon flavor in a cake is always pleasant, but it can also be optional and replaced with 1 or 2 teaspoons of vanilla.
• Creme fraîche - this dairy is nothing more than fresh cream, but with about 30% (and up to 50%) of fat to which a culture of bacteria has been added. Due to bacterial fermentation, its texture is thicker and creamier, thus avoiding the presence of thickeners, and has a slightly acidic flavor.

How to make

• Start by beating the egg yolks together with the sugar until it dissolves and the cream is pale and fluffy.
• To this cream are added the lemon zest and then the creme fraîche.
• Then, the chestnut flour (previously sifted and mixed with the baking powder) is involved in the preparation. When sifting, we will avoid the formation of lumps.
• Apart, beat the egg whites.
• The egg whites are involved in the preparation, little by little, so that they don't lose air and collapse.
• The preparation is then poured into a greased and sprinkled with sugar pan (the one in this recipe is 20cm).
• Bake at 180ºC between 35 to 40 minutes.
• Decorate with some powdered sugar after cooling and when serving, as the cake has some moisture and it'll gradually dissolve the sugar we apply.
• In this decoration, I used the crochet/lace technique, in which we basically use those old lace cloths or towels (washed and cleaned) and put them on top of the cold cake and sift some powdered sugar on top. Not all cakes are good candidates for this type of decoration, but it is quite original. In light coloured cakes, you can also make the design by replacing sugar with cocoa powder. 

Chestnut, cream fraîche and lemon recipe

Ingredients

4 eggs
125 gr of sugar
200 gr of creme fraîche
125 gr of chestnut flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon

1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until you get a soft cream.
2. Add the lemon zest and creme fraîche, wrapping well.
3. Apart, sift the brown flour and add the baking powder.
4. The flour is then incorporated into the previous preparation.
5. Whip the egg whites.
6. The egg whites are gradually well wrapped in the preparation with the help of a whisk or spatula.
7. Place in a greased and sprinkled with sugar pan.
8. Bake at 180ºC between 35 to 40 minutes.
9. Decorate with some powdered sugar.

Adapted from "Lemon, creme fraîche & chestnut cake recipe" / Originally posted in 2019

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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.

Chestnut mini-tarts recipe

1. In a food processor, mash the cooked nuts.
2. Add the eggs, and the melted butter, and mix well.
3. Finally, add the sugar and the vanilla.
4. Cover the tartlet forms with the puff pastry (yields 8 mini-tarts with 8 cm in diameter).
5. Distribute the preparation onto each form and bake at 200ºC for 20 to 25 minutes.