Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

25 pounds of chestnut flour. 0 Ideas.


gfron1

Recommended Posts

Sorry that I don't know you well enough to suggest something you haven't tried yet, but www.frenchpastrychef.com has it's cookbook online. It offers recipes for a chestnut tart and for cream alpine.

http://frenchpastrychef.com/pastry/0105cheastnutart.shtml

http://frenchpastrychef.com/pastry/0309alpine.shtml

Theresa :biggrin:

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

- Abraham Lincoln

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are several wonderful Italian desserts that are based on chestnut flour.

Castagnaccio is one

Another is chestnut fritters.

and you can substitute chestnut flour for a good portion of the flour in most biscotti recipes

and substitute it for almond or hazelnut flour in any pastry that includes those nut flours.

These should give your some ideas.

There is also the interesting dessert that includes lots of eggs, combined with al dente angel-hair pasta and a shell made of chestnut flour, egg whites and sugar - sort of like a meringue.

I have the recipe somewhere and if I can find it, will post it. I can't recall the exact name and it doesn't seem to be filed under my usual "special ingredients" category.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Both of those sites are very cool and ones I haven't seen before. Theresa - I couldn't get the instructions to open for me...it said I had 5 free samples (I assume I have to subscribe after that), but they didn't open.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

there's a recipe somewhere on chocolate&zucchini for some very nice biscotti involving chestnut flour and, i think, praline paste?

or chestnut flour pasta?

How about chestnut flour goncchi?

and in my "links" file under "Nuts & Stuff" I found

this interesting site

Which seems to have a plethora of interesting things about chestnuts and etc.

Still haven't found the recipe for the Catherine d'Medici cake/confection.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made a chestnut cheesecake that was really nice. I used puree which I made myself, but what's chestnut flour other than....rather dry chestnut puree? :) Of course the puree was from boiled chestnuts. I'm sure you could adapt. The recipe's in recipe gullet.

"Los Angeles is the only city in the world where there are two separate lines at holy communion. One line is for the regular body of Christ. One line is for the fat-free body of Christ. Our Lady of Malibu Beach serves a great free-range body of Christ over angel-hair pasta."

-Lea de Laria

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can find a use for anything and I had a good price...always the bargain hunter.

I made the castagnaccio, and it was the godawfulestmostdisgustingcrap ever! Don't take it personally Andie. I think what happened is that my flour is from roasted chestnuts and so my cake/tart tasted like if smoked bacon had sex with Elmer's paste...this was its love child. Oddly enough it was fairly decent with a bottle of pinot grigio. As Tyler said, "It's not horrid, but it is the second worst thing you've ever made." (The first being the infamous rose water trifle incident of 2005.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On Rick Stein's Med Escapes (UK show) he ate a dish called pulenda at one place. Can't say he was too enamoured with it although he said it went quite well with the local figatellu sausage. It was just chestnut flour boiled up with water (like polenta) then cut with a wire, not that the wire will affect the taste much.

There's a recipe here, and a few other chestnut flour recipes too:

http://www.corseboutique.fr/les%20recettes...11e14b8415b37f6

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can find a use for anything and I had a good price...always the bargain hunter.

I made the castagnaccio, and it was the godawfulestmostdisgustingcrap ever!  Don't take it personally Andie.  I think what happened is that my flour is from roasted chestnuts and so my cake/tart tasted like if smoked bacon had sex with Elmer's paste...this was its love child.  Oddly enough it was fairly decent with a bottle of pinot grigio.  As Tyler said, "It's not horrid, but it is the second worst thing you've ever made."  (The first being the infamous rose water trifle incident of 2005.)

Oooooooooh. Sounds horrid.

I can't imagine why, just having roasted chestnuts ground into flour should make that much difference in the flavor.

The stuff I have made had a subtle flavor of chestnuts with the raisins (I used Sultanas), pinenuts and walnuts with just a hint of rosemary. The texture was close to that of somewhat crisp brownies.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, for what its worth, here's my castagnaccio pre-baking

gallery_41282_4708_27763.jpg

And the same after baking

gallery_41282_4708_36799.jpg

And my face pre-swallow

gallery_41282_4708_45175.jpg

And the same after swallowing

gallery_41282_4708_35352.jpg

We've revised our love-child description. If Lapsong Souchong had sex with Elmer's Paste, this would be the love child. Enjoy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gfron1 -

I had no problem getting into the instructions. I suggest you use your browser settings.

I am new here, and I do not know what the policy is for posting recipes from other websites. Would someone please let me know? If it's alright, I can copy and post the recipes for you instead.

Oh, and you're right, that castagnaccio doesn't look like anything I would eat, either.

Theresa :biggrin:

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

- Abraham Lincoln

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rob, your castagnaccio looks about twice as thick as the way I make it but that should not have much effect on the flavor. It also looks wetter than mine.

How does the raw flour taste?

If I can get a bit of time between now and when I leave next week, I will try to bake a batch.

I think I have some chestnut flour in the freezer with my other "exotic" baking ingredients that tend to go rancid rapidly. I know I bought some last December and don't recall using it all.

Will see you sometime after the 12th as I am stopping in Phoenix for a couple of days to see friends in the area before driving on to Deming.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's right! I'll make you a batch to celebrate your visit :)

And Theresa - you can post recipes if you put them in your own words. The list of ingredients can be verbatim, but the instructions can't. I'll try the site again in the meantime. Or, you can PM me the recipe. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I knew I knew I knew I had recently come across a recipe I wanted to try with chestnut flour, but I couldn't bring it up from the (mental) database. Then another EGullet thread jogged the answer loose. Alice Medrich's Chestnut Pound Cake:

http://kitchenmusings.typepad.com/my_weblo...imes-subtl.html

I'm wondering where I can buy some chestnut flour, and there you are with 25 lbs of it.

Hope you have better luck if you try this recipe!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

This "roasted" chestnut flour is really strong, so today I thought about how I could complement and tame the smokiness. I made some basic scones, added the flour, white chocolate, cacao nibs. They turned out really well. Smoke and white chocolate...mmmm...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Smoke and white chocolate...mmmm...

Yep, smoke and white chocolate are definitely in the "mmmm" category. I try to keep a couple lbs. on hand all the time. When it gets low, I smoke some more. Same with smoked milk chocolate. Smoked dark chocolate is nice but the combo seems to accentuate the bitterness of both the chocolate and the smoke so it requires a little more thought in using (unless you like that bitterness).

I don't have a suggestion for the chestnut flour, the only thing I've ever used it for is pasta dough. On an unrelated note, I was browsing through the "interesting" section of the only local grocery store this morning and noticed coconut flour. Don't know a thing about it but I have to play with that one. I'm excited to see this section in the store because, until very recently, the most exotic thing in the store was kiwis and gelatin sheets. :hmmm:

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...