Autumn is a rich and prosperous season.
Our land, in this period, is wonderful because if on the one hand it offers shades of color ranging from yellow to red, on the other it offers products such as mushrooms, chestnuts, pumpkin and pomegranates.
In this article I will focus on chestnuts.
In the Apulian tradition we usually eat chestnuts at the end of a meal, cooking them on the fire or in the oven and accompanying them with a glass of new wine.
Less known and used is chestnut flour, obtained from the processing of previously dried chestnuts.Its fame and its use have grown in recent years thanks to its particular taste and its lack of gluten which makes it perfect for both sweet and savory preparations.
If you want to experiment with savory recipes, you can use chestnut flour in the preparation of homemade pasta (from orecchiette to tagliatelle). If you prefer sweet recipes, you can use it in the cake with chestnut flour and chocolate that we will make below.
Let's first proceed with the preparation of chestnut flour.+
Chestnut flour: how to get it
Choose carefully the chestnuts and carve them with a knife.
Cook them in plenty of water for 40 minutes, which you will calculate from when the water has started to boil. Drain them and let them cool but, before they cool completely, remove the peel keeping the pulp alone. Place the peeled chestnuts on a baking tray covered with a sheet of parchment paper.
Bake for 60 minutes in the oven at 160 °.
As soon as the chestnuts are crunchy, remove from the oven and blend them in a mixer.
We then proceed to the preparation of cake.
Cake with chestnut flour and chocolate drops
Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 180 g of sugar
- 80 ml of oil
- 250 g of chestnut flour
- 30 grams of unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 sachet of baking powder
- 1 glass of milk
- 100 gr of chocolate chips
- Powdered sugar
Start whipping the eggs with the sugar. Add the oil, milk, chestnut flour together with the yeast and bitter cocoa.
Finally add the chocolate chips and transfer the mixture into a springform mold. Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 35 minutes.
Let the cake cool completely and serve with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
If you replicate the recipe, let us know and tag us in your photos!