Chestnuts

Steamed Chestnut Cake

This time of year starts to revive some old memories of roasted corncobs and chestnuts on the streets. Chestnuts are one of my favorite foods. And they are so versatile in a kitchen: eaten alone, roasted or cooked and mashed with sugar and topped with whipped cream, or as a part of some great savory dish.. In some parts of Europe, like Corsica, they use it for almost anything. Well, on such a beautiful island with unbelievable scenery and lifestyle where you feel like going back in time, everything tastes better.. Corsican food is probably one of most "bio"- organic that you can find in developed countries. I can't talk about Corsica and not to mention famous coppa, that I have personally tasted and great goat cheeses and liquors (mirto) and chestnut brandy. Now, online, with the other amazing Corsican products, you can even buy chestnut flour to make famous Corsican chestnut cake. I have recently found a great blog about life on Corsica. Marrons glacés (candied chestnuts) are so popular in France.

I have also found out about a great desserts made from chestnuts in a steamer. 

It sounds strange, but did you know that you can basically make whole meals and desserts in the steamer?! And it can be tastier, moister and definitely healthier than a regular cake, full of butter and oil. On a steam, cakes become moister due to being exposed to so much steam.

Steamed chestnut cake 

450 gr (1lb) cooked chestnuts (puree)

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

5 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

5 tbsp brandy

50 gr chopped dark chocolate

50 gr chopped walnuts or almonds

Mix chestnut puree with brandy and yogurt, Beat eggs separately with adding 1/2 sugar at the end of beating of egg whits and 1/2 of sugar in egg yolks. Add chestnut mix and chocolate and walnuts. Butter steam-safe dishes or put some maple syrup or honey at the bottom so cake don't stick. Cook in a steam bowl for 30 minutes. Let it cool, take it out from a bowl and sprinkle with roasted nuts.

More chestnut recipes...

Corsican Chestnut cake

Ingredients:
250g of chestnut flour,
80 g of wheat flour,
A pinch of salt,
2 packets of yeast,
150 g caster sugar
4 eggs
8 cl milk
8 cl of olive oil,
100 g hazelnuts (chopped grillees)
20 g lard (for greasing pan)

Icing:
100 g dark chocolate
8 cl milk
2 cl of olive oil,

Turn an oven to 160° C (350F). Sift flours, wheat and chestnuts and mix them in a shell. Add
salt, sugar and baking powder. Stir eggs, milk and oil, energetically working the dough with a spatula. Add the hazelnut paste and mix well. Pour the batter into a cake pan. Bake in an oven (160° C) for 30 minutes. As soon as cooked, un-mold onto a cloth laid on a grid. Prepare the icing, cut the chocolate into small pieces. Boil milk with olive oil. Add the chocolate pieces. When it starts to cool, glaze the cake.