Chestnut Sweets and Desserts

[tammylc]

I've decided I'm not quite busy enough, so I'm going to make some truffles for the holidays. I'm planning "seasonal" flavors - egg nog, gingerbread, cranberry, and chestnut, I think.

Anybody have a recipe for chestnut ganache to share?

[aguynamedrobert]

I would just suggest roasting the chesnuts and then grining them down to a paste...then work that paste into the Ganache recipe...I think you will get the most flavor that way...

-Robert

Chocolate Forum

[ludja]

Rum and vanilla are good flavor combinations with chestnut puree...

[tammylc]

I would just suggest roasting the chesnuts and then grining them down to a paste...then work that paste into the Ganache recipe...I think you will get the most flavor that way...

-Robert

Chocolate Forum

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Would you add sugar? The recipes I'm seeing online basically have you make chestnut puree with butter and sugar, and then incorporate that with melted chocolate.

Here's a typical one:

Ingredients

6 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate

1 16-ounce can whole chestnuts, or 1-1/4 pound fresh

6 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup sugar

2-1/2 tablespoons brandy or other liqueur

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

To prepare centers, melt chocolate in a double boiler and allow to cool. If using fresh chestnuts, cut a cross on the flat side of each shell, put in a large pan, cover with cold water, and boil for 5 minutes. Remove the shells and inner skins. Rice the chestnuts. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add chestnuts and flavorings to the butter/sugar mixture and blend well, then stir in the cooled chocolate. Mix well. Roll into balls 1-1/2 inches in diameter; if mixture becomes too soft to shape, chill for several minutes.

[tammylc]

Rum and vanilla are good flavor combinations with chestnut puree...

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Thanks. I'm making egg nog truffles with rum in the same set, so I probably won't do rum with the chestnut. Maybe a bit of brandy?

[JeanneCake]

Will you share your recipe for egg nog truffles? I'm going to a truffle making party this weekend, we're all bringing 100 centers of various flavors and dipping/finishing them at the party. Then we all go home with some number of boxes of mixed truffles, just like a cookie party....

I'm making white chocolate passion fruit truffles and a milk chocolate cranberry one. Others are making caramel, black raspberry buttercream, chocolate chip, a peanut butter version, and a grand marnier one is in there too. I'd love to do an egg nog truffle!

Thanks!

[tammylc]

I don't have an eggnog truffle recipe yet... I'm going to start with one mrose posted in the pumpkin pie truffle thread, but I have yet to do a test batch. Check out his post - I'd love to hear your experience with it.

[tammylc]

Experiments with chestnut ganache are underway.

Although I was skeptical going in, I tried the recipe posted below. Half my chestnuts were moldy (grrr). I don't have a ricer, so I tried to use a food mill, but that didn't work. So I ended up trying to mix it all up in my food processor, and - understandably - didn't get the nice smooth puree I was looking for. That might have been okay, but there's no cream or other liquid in the recipe so the sugar stays crunchy, and well - yuck. I just wasn't pleased.

Given the molding issue, I decided to abandon the idea of cooking my own chestnuts from scratch - it's too disheartening to go to all that work of scoring and peeling only to have them not be useable. So I found a sweetened chestnut spread and am working with that as the base instead. I did a test batch last night with 2 oz chestnut spread, 1 oz melted chocolate, and 1/4 tsp brandy. Pretty good, but I'm going to try another batch today that incorporates some butter.

[mrose]

Will you share your recipe for egg nog truffles?  I'm going to a truffle making party this weekend, we're all bringing 100 centers of various flavors and dipping/finishing them at the party.  Then we all go home with some number of boxes of mixed truffles, just like a cookie party....

I'm making white chocolate passion fruit truffles and a milk chocolate cranberry one.  Others are making caramel, black raspberry buttercream, chocolate chip, a peanut butter version, and a grand marnier one is in there too.  I'd love to do an egg nog truffle!

Thanks!

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JeanneCake

I don't know if you made the passion fruit truffle yet. I make mine with puree and Alize (passion fruit liquor). Only suggestion is to go easy on passion fruit since it can get overpowering. I use about 1/2 cup puree in 18 oz milk chocolate.

Mark

[Waterzoy]

I have just started to make Christine Ferber's chestnut and vanilla jam. I have halved the quantities she suggested and have followed her instructions which were to put the peeled chestnuts, water, sugar and vanilla pod in a pan, bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes, strirring gently. The next stage is for it to sit in a ceramic bowl overnight. This is the stage I am at. My mixture went solid the minute I put it in the bowl. The sugar is now quite hard and I suspect that I had the heat too high when I cooked it for the 15 minutes.

I have two questions.

1. Ought I have cooked it for a shorter period given that I had halved the quantity of the ingredients, and if so, how long should I have cooked it for?

2. Is there anything I can do now to save it? My fingers are still sore from peeling the chestnuts and I am really reluctant to put it in the bin if anyone can suggest anything.

The quantities I used were:

400g peeled chestnuts

400g sugar

200ml water

vanilla pod

Thanks for any advice.

[beccaboo]

I think you should have cooked it for a shorter time, as there was less water to evaporate. I don't know how much shorter--maybe 10 minutes.

I'd add a little water--maybe 75-100ml--to your mixture and heat it gently to get everything to dissolve. I've had similar troubles with sugar getting hard too fast, and I always manage to fix things up somehow.

[Waterzoy]

Thanks for the advice Beccaboo. I hope it can be salvaged.

[McAuliflower]

Fanny at Foodbeam has a write up about this recipe on her food blog. She too mentions sore fingers!

Though it looks like she didn't have a problem, she may have some feedback that can help.

[racheld]

This sounds simply lovely, and I echo the add-liquid-to-melt.

If only we didn't have plans for roasting these two pounds of lovely fat shiny fellows tonight!!

[jende]

I want to make a recipe that calls for sweetened chestnut puree, but all I have is whole roasted chestnuts in a jar. My plan is to throw these in the food processor with some agave nectar (not granular like sugar).

Do you think this is a good plan? I know I may not be able to get it totally smooth, but I don't think this will matter too much in this recipe.

[gfron1]

I think I would cook it down too, and I would add a touch of rum for good measure.

[helenjp]

To be honest, I think you'd get more enjoyable results from using them whole or broken in a stuffing or cake etc.

I have made chestnut puree from scratch, starting by cooking raw, peeled chestnuts slowly in milk, and even then, it was hard to get the final puree absolutely smooth - tasted good though. I can't help thinking that starting with chestnuts cooked by a dry method will make it hard to get the results you want.

[dystopiandreamgirl]

i make chestnut puree from fresh nuts every christmas, smooth enough for a silky bavarian:

they are a total pita and worth every second - score the raw nuts and boil a few minutes till you can shell them - put the shelled nuts in 1/2 water, 1/2 whole milk, with a piece of vanilla bean and simmer till very soft, then drain and force through a sieve.

maybe the water/milk mixture gets them softer than milk alone? i would try that for your jarred ones.

[gfron1]

and the swans...are they meringue?

[jende]

I ended up processing the chestnuts with a little brandy (didn't have any rum), agave nectar and some whole milk to smooth it out. It wasn't perfectly smooth, but still worked out.

[gfron1]

it wasn't perfectly smooth

Did you run it through a sieve? That would probably perfect it.

[dystopiandreamgirl]

and the swans...are they meringue?

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yes, filled with whipped ceam, from rlb's templates in the cake bible.

offscreen is a pitcher of chocolate rum sauce.

i think chestnuts & rum is the most divine combination since pineapple & kirsch.

[devlin]

and the swans...are they meringue?

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yes, filled with whipped ceam, from rlb's templates in the cake bible.

offscreen is a pitcher of chocolate rum sauce.

i think chestnuts & rum is the most divine combination since pineapple & kirsch.

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Can you provide a little tutorial on your bavarian? I've tried it only once in my life and wasn't particularly pleased with my results. Not sure what I did wrong.

[ludja]

and the swans...are they meringue?

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yes, filled with whipped ceam, from rlb's templates in the cake bible.

offscreen is a pitcher of chocolate rum sauce.

i think chestnuts & rum is the most divine combination since pineapple & kirsch.

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Can you provide a little tutorial on your bavarian? I've tried it only once in my life and wasn't particularly pleased with my results. Not sure what I did wrong.

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I would enjoy this as well. I love making Kastanienreis (Mont Blanc) which I also flavor with rum so the flavors are similar to your bavarian. I'd love to get an idea on how to approach this even more elegant preparation and achieve similar flavors...

[TicTac]

7 minutes ago, KennethT said:

And this came from a tasting she did today...

 

Still have fond memories of visiting La Duree in Paris about 20 years back with my grandmother.  Their macarons were good - but their chestnut 'noodles' on chestnut cream was far superior!