Chestnut Puree - Ideas?

[morebubbles]

I bought a can of chestnut puree, it says it is sweetened. Looking for ideas on what I could make using it....Anyone? Thanks!

[LanaBouchet]

ve also added roasted pecans. It is really, really good. Best of Luck to you!

[riptiki]

http://www.clementfaugier.fr/fr/v4/v4...

[Plat du jour]

How about a venison loin with the chestnut puree and a raspberry puree to act as sweet counterpoints?

[intrepid cook]

Venison loin with chestnut and raspberry purees sounds lovely (now I just need to figure out where to get a loin of venison).
What about adding sweetened chestnut puree to a flourless almond cake? Or making a normal almond cake, filling it with the puree and covering it with a chocolate ganache? That idea makes me think of the chocolate-almond cake in the IKEA cafeteria.

[BostonCookieMonster]

That chocolate cake roll sounds divine, but in my lazy family, chestnut puree was always eaten with plain yogurt--not really mixed together, just on the same spoon. It's good! Another lazy use I discovered is bake some pear halves, top with a glob of the chestnut stuff, add some little chunks of very dark chocolate, and swirl the melting chocolate with the chestnut as it melts.

[foodslut]

I mix the puree with a little whipped cream and use it as a filling for a simple chocolate cake with choco buttercream frosting. I think it's based on a Croatian recipe: Torte Varazdin. There's a recipe here that looks authentic--enjoy!
http://www.dubyad40.com/html/wally/wa...

[GOING LOCAL]

Blend one cup of the sweetened chestnut puree with a tablespoon of orange zest and two tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice until well incorported. Buy a box of tiny pre-make phyllo shells, bakethem off and cool them. Put about a heaping teaspoon of the sweetened chestnut puree in them--serve with espresso. (note: If the puree was not sweetened you would have added 1/4 cup powdered sugar to the puree as well.

Victoria
www.goinglocal-info.com

[riptiki]

What about orange liqueur? Cointreau, Grand-Marnier, Aurum, Café orange, Mandarine, etc.

[addie]

This is a great dessert, simple and
elegant, also Italian - I got the
recipie from a Joyce Goldstein book -
anyway its Chestnut Panna Cotta served
with a wee bit of chocolate sauce. I have
served it often to much success. If
you are interested in the recipie I can
post it.

[morebubbles]

Addie- Yes, please post the chestnut panna cotta recipe. I like the idea of lower-fat desserts such as that (chocolate sauce's always good!).

[Emme]

I like my pie... http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

You might consider tasting the puree and altering it to use, to approximate the taste in the my recipe.

[morebubbles]

Emme, thank you for that link! Pies are my favorite thing in the world. Wow, your own creation, it sounds really good.

[Emme]

It came out of my mom's memories of her father. She associates roasted chestnuts with him... I forget exactly why, but I wanted to incoporate them into something, so I just started fiddling one day.

[k_d]

My Chinese relatives love to make these not-too-sweet sponge cakes frosted with stabilized whipped cream and mounded on top with chestnut puree forced through a ricer. A beautiful thing.

[steinpilz]

I've seen it as a filling for some sweet thing, but I can't remember what it was (pastries, tarts?. Sorry.

[steinpilz]

I've remembered - it's crepes, as Hungry Celeste mentioned above, with powdered sugar.

[Procrastibaker]

what about a pave? It's like a dense poundcake made with chestnuts and a chocolate glaze. There is a recipe on Epicurious-- it's not the one I used but I can't remember where I found mine. It was really lovely though...

[buttertart]

Posted by Kate in Oct. 05 and made by me many times since - I use half the butter, though -
Thanks a million, Kate, I adore this cake.

QUOTE:
CHESTNUT BUNDT CAKE
My mum uses the French sweetened chestnut puree in tins in the baking section at Wholefoods.

Whip/beat together
300g/10.5 oz. confectioner's sugar
400g/14 oz. sweetened chestnut puree
200g/7 oz. butter
7 egg yolks

Add:
300g/ 10.5oz ground almonds
1 good pinch baking powder

Add carefully without overbeating:
7 stiffly beaten egg whites.

Pour into a greased and floured baking tin or bundt mold. Bake for 60-65 minutes at 350F/180C. Gently sift over some confectioner's sugar just before serving. Enjoy!
UNQUOTE

[morebubbles]

Great, thanks for the bundt cake recipe! This looks like something I can make. It is one of those French chestnut puree cans.
piccola-the dumpling/ravioli sounds good, but I don't think I'm patient enough,or talented, to make that!

[piccola]

neither am i, which is why i tried to talk you into it ;-)

[morebubbles]

:-D cute! One of us should start a new Topic: 'If I were Talented Enough I would Make....'

[bitsubeats]

you could go savory and pair it with some game. I believe jacque pepin said that it goes very well with game, which one though I don't know.

[piccola]

This may be too far-fetched, but I could see you using it as a stuffing for some kind of dessert dumpling/ravioli, with some kind of light crème anglaise on top...

[cteats]

Add about 3 tablespoons to the wet ingredients in a recipe for pancakes or waffles.

[morebubbles]

You guys are so smart. Of course, on bread and on pancakes! On chocolate bread....

[rockycat]

How about eating it straight out of the can? Yum. That's my favorite use. It also makes a delicious, albeit expensive, bread spread. Especially on challah.

[Kitchen Queen]

I'd put it on a piece of toast with a little butter and... yum! Or, how about melting it down with some unsalted butter and pour over panacakes - WOW!

[bolivianita]

I've had chestnut flan before. I did'nt particularly like it but I am not big on chestnuts. I believe it is an Italian dessert. I know that some parts of Italy use a lot of chestnuts in their cooking.

[ace]

My mom used to make an amazing dessert (she's dead and I don't have the recipe), which was basically a cake baked in a jelly roll pan, then she'd mix the sweetened chestnut puree with whipped cream, spread it on the cake, and roll it up. It was everyone's favorite. Kinda like this....http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec...

[morebubbles]

Sorry about your mom.
A buche de noel is certainly a great idea. thanks for the idea and for the link. Maybe for x-mas. Did she use to frost it & make it look like a log or not?

[ace]

Nope. It actually was made as a bday cake, because we all usually requested it. Just powdered sugar sprinkled on unfrosted cake, rolled up with creme marron and whipped cream. I don't know if I've ever even had a real buche noel- I'm Jewish, so not the kind of thing my mom ever made.

[morebubbles]

Thanks for that, I like the idea of a simpler rolled cake better actually. Around here, buche de noel avail. around the holidays tend to be fancy with all sorts of icing & decorations to make them look like logs, complete with merengue mushrooms, etc. Nice, but the idea you gave me is more do-able, for me anyway. Sounds good.

[morebubbles]

Thanks everyone! Yum. Love bread pudding. Have never tried mont blanc but have looked now at some recipes, sounds good!
Love crepes, will think about that one. Serve with chocolate sauce on top maybe?
The ice cream ones does sound decadent, & easy for last-minute dessert idea as well. Thanks!!

[fauchon]

servie it with high quality vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate rum/brandy sauce...oh, decadence!

[Hungry Celeste]

Use as a filling for crepes.

[superchick]

mont blancs

[sugarbuzz]

Try making some chocolate bread pudding & adding it to the base. Maybe use a bittersweet chocolate & reduce the sugar accordingly.