Do you love chocolate cake? Last weekend I made my famous chocolate cake; albeit with a few amendments to the recipe to produce a wheat-free option, because everybody knows now that I am eating shape consciously.
I had a few bags of vacuum packed chestnuts left over from last Christmas. Fortunately, for an ingenious mind, there are things you can do to weed unwanted vacuum packed chestnuts from your kitchen cabinet: I substituted the flour and used the unloved chestnuts instead.
Hubby seemed amused at my attempts, slightly distrustful of the experiment, in that classic hubby way and suggested we get some chocolate biscuits just in case my experiment wouldn’t work out… .
Baking often invites a little bit of craziness that will delight not only kids and baffle suspicious husbands: Quite unexpectedly and to my great delight the chocolate cake turned out well with a subtle flavour of chestnut that I love; sumptuous, light, crunchy… and yes, he loved it, too!
Crunchy Chestnut and Chocolate Cake (Torta Di Castagne e Cioccolato)!
Serves 8
Prep 30 min
Baking 45 min
Rest 20 min
Keep 1 week, in a dry place
Equipment
1 electrical mixer
1 round spring-release cake tin/ any round cake tin + kitchen foil
1 chopping board
1 sharp knife or food processor
Ingredients
400g (2 packets) vacuum–packed chestnuts
300ml (2 glasses) milk
150g mixed chopped nuts, or whole nuts
200g (2 packets) best quality bitter chocolate (70% dark)
250g caster sugar
120g (2 glasses) soft unsalted butter
5 eggs, separated
1 lemon, zest of
1 eggs, pinch of salt
Topping
20g icing sugar
Directions
1. I preheat the oven to 150 C/300F/ Gas 2. In the past I have preheated to 180 C, but the cake turns out to be moister when baked at a lower heat for a bit longer.
2. I butter a 25cm (10 in) round spring-release cake tin.
3. I then simmer the chestnuts in milk for 20 minutes, until soft. Drain and discard the milk, then chop up the chestnuts and chocolate coarsely with a sharp knife, or in a food processor; finally I mix chocolate and chestnuts with the nuts. For added flavour, instead roast whole nuts in a dry pan and chop them up coarsely.
4. I cream together soft butter and sugar in an electric mixer until smooth, pale and light. Add the yolks – one by one; by mixing in each yolk for 1 minute. Then I add the chocolate/chestnut/nut mix, the lemon zest and a pinch of salt.
5. I beat the egg whites for a few minutes at maximum speed, until stiff. Fold 1/4 of the stiff egg white into the chocolate mix, before gently folding in the rest.
6. I spoon the mix into the prepared tin and bake the cake in the pre-heated oven for 45 minutes. I turn the oven off and leave the cake in the oven to set. I remove the tin from the oven and leave the tin to cool down. When cold, I remove the cake from the tin and place it on a cake rack. Just before serving, I dust the cake with icing sugar. Voila!
7. In the unfortunate event that you have not got a spring-release tin handy, any round tin will do. However, I suggest you line the tin with kitchen foil and butter the foil before spooning in the cake mix. This prevents the cake from sticking to the tin, and helps you remove it easily from the tin when cold, without the chocolate cake breaking up.
Let me know what you think! Share your chocolate cake variations & experiments with us!
Incoming search terms:
- chocolate crispy torta cake
- CRUNCHY CHESTNUTS
- river cafe torte di castagne
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Good article and right to the point. I am not sure if this is actually the best place to ask but do you folks have any ideea where to hire some professional writers? Thanks
Hi Earnest, Thanks for stopping by and for your kind compliment. Contact paedra@potsandpickles or follow us on Twitter @potsandpickles for more information on professional food writers. Cheers
This is really nice, I love that you give tips to help others bake just as well as you can. I am currently in the process of trying to domesticate myself by cooking and baking as much as possible. Only thing is, I don’t know what I want unless there are pictures and lots of details. I had to click on this one because I LOVE chocolate cake, almost drooled on the keyboard. Glad you have this recipe up, I’m adding it to my list of things to try. Wish me luck!
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Paedra, this sounds delicious. I love the idea of the chestnuts instead of flour, but I may have trouble finding them here in the midwest U.S. Do you have any suggestions for a chestnut substitution? (I’ll still try for the chestnuts.)
Hi Nancy, thanks for your kind comment.
You are right in suggesting that there might be a market opportunity for chestnuts in the US.
Did you know that U.S. chestnut production is less than 1% of total world production? With around 1,200 US farms mostly based in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Florida and California. Another interesting fact: In 2010 The US imported 4,902 metric tons of chestnuts valued at $12.7 million. The value of chestnuts ranges from $1.50 per pound wholesale to $5 per pound retail.
Unfortunately, I have not found a replacement ingredient for you yet, but in the meantime, let me help you with the sourcing of chestnuts. Here are a few places you could check out:
Chestnut Charlie’s, Lawrence, Kansas – This farm offers certified organic chestnuts
Chestnut Growers Inc – This for-profit grower cooperative for chestnut processing and marketing includes growers in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Washington State.
Chestnut Hill Tree Farm, Alachua, Florida;
The Allen Creek Farm in Ridgefield, Washington – Ships chestnuts from the orchards to anywhere in the United States and Canada.
Correia Chestnut Farm, Sacramento River Delta in California
Delmarvelous Farms – This chestnut farm, grows and ships chestnuts to customers across the United States. The Web site also offers recipes and tips on how to prepare and store fresh chestnuts.
Empire Chestnut Company, Carrollton, Ohio – The orchard produces nursery stock and between 10,000 and 30,000 pounds of nuts annually
Nolin River Nut Tree Nursery, Upton, Kentucky – A family-owned and -operated nursery
Southeast Iowa Nut Growers Co-op, Ag Marketing Resource Center – Group of 40 chestnut growers who pool their crop and sell it through a marketing coordinator.
Even, if they are not quite close, they might be able to help you with recommendations of local stores and farmer’s markets. Let me know how you are getting on.
You can always get hold of me on Twitter @potsandpickles. Just fire away
Boun Appetito!
Didn’t think all hubbies are recipe suspicious — but mine definitely is. Sounds delicious to me but I have just become a vegan due to my tendency toward gout. Any ideas how to make this chocolate goody without butter, eggs or real milk? I’m limited to lactaid free milk. I am not suspicious but too lazy to experiment and fail.
Your blog looks very tasty and tasteful to me. Love the name too!
Myrna
I found and tried this vegan chocolate cake, and its delicious. Generally, I have found that you can take any recipe and modify it to your requirements. Simply replace milk with water and butter with vegetable oil. In the case of the chestnut chocolate cake above, I used lactosefree milk to soften the chestnuts. Equally Tofu, bananas and a commercial egg substitute can all be used to replace eggs in your favorite recipe. In the recipe below I used another egg replacement: 2 tbsp water mixed with 1 tbsp of oil and 3 tsp of baking powder.
Ingredients
6 oz (175g)
3 level tsp baking powder
2 oz (50g) cocoa
3 1/2 oz (100g) Barbados sugar
4 1/2 fl oz (125 ml) vegetable oil
11 1/2 fl oz (325 ml) cold water
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 145C
2. Place all the cake ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
3. Place mixture in greased round tin and bake for 45 minutes in the pre-heated oven. Cool on a wire rack.
4. Dust with icing sugar before serving
5. serve with vegan vanilla ice cream