Homemade chestnut purée

Chestnut purée can be used in a wide variety of sweet bakes and desserts. Making it at home is simple, although peeling chestnuts perfectly is certainly not the quickest task, and they do have a tendency to break apart… 😉 To save time, you can also buy ready-made chestnut purée in tins. Just remember that there are two varieties available: sweetened and unsweetened, depending on the type of dessert or bake you plan to make.

From 1 cup of chestnuts, you will obtain approximately 1 cup of chestnut purée.

Ingredients for chestnut purée:

• edible chestnuts
• water and milk, in equal proportions

Roast the chestnuts in the oven and peel them.

Place the peeled chestnuts into a saucepan. Cover with a mixture of water and milk in equal proportions (for 500 g of chestnuts, use approximately 500 ml of liquid), ensuring the chestnuts are fully submerged. Cook for approximately 30 minutes, or longer if necessary, until completely tender. During cooking, most of the liquid should evaporate. If needed, add a little extra water.

Transfer the softened chestnuts to a food processor and blend until smooth. If there is too much liquid remaining in the saucepan, drain it off first, but reserve it in case you need to add some back to achieve the desired consistency. The purée should be thick — much thicker than pumpkin purée — with a firm consistency. However, it should still be spreadable, not hard or dry.

Transfer to a jar and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or freeze in portion-sized freezer bags.

For sweet chestnut purée, add sugar (or another sweetener such as honey or maple syrup) together with vanilla. While cooking the chestnuts in the milk and water mixture, add the sugar and the seeds scraped from a vanilla pod. Add the empty vanilla pod as well during cooking, then remove it before blending. The amount of sugar depends on the dessert you plan to make and your personal taste preferences.

My sweet chestnut purée contains approximately 2–3 tablespoons of sugar per 500 g of chestnuts, along with 2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste. For cakes and bakes, I usually prepare the purée without sugar and sweeten the finished dessert or bake instead.

Enjoy!