I've just developed a recipe for a chestnut cake that I'm super excited about!
I had been thinking about basing it off of a pumpkin pie recipe (substituting the pumpkin puree with chestnut puree) but one idea led to another and I ended up basing it more off of my flourless chocolate tart recipe. So it has that texture (with additional creaminess from the chestnuts) well as a huge flavor release because of the lack of flour.
Our guests go crazy over it and I've been selling a ton of them but I've been having one real issue which is that the top layer tends to crumble off as it's being sliced. Maybe it's my method, or maybe my ratio needs a little tweaking. I'd really like to avoid adding flour or ground nuts to help bind it because the texture is insane. If anyone has any ideas I'd really appreciate it!
p.s. I think this could be adapted to make a delicious chestnut souffle!
So here's the recipe and I highly recommend giving this a try!
Combine these ingredients in a pot over low heat. Use a whisk to combine.
1 can of pure chestnut puree (879g)
250g butter
a good pinch of salt
20g rum
a very small pinch of cinnamon
In a mixer, beat:
4 eggs with
280g sugar
20g vanilla sugar
fold half the chestnut mixture into the egg/sugar mix, then incorporate the rest.
bake at 160C for 50min.
the fan is on 3
humidity is at 20 percent
Some things I was thinking about trying:
-combining everything besides the eggs in the pot and then stirring in the eggs at the end (like brownies) to avoid incorporating air but I'm not sure how the texture will turn out.
-maybe another egg to help bind it or will that just make it rise more, causing even more separation between the top layer and the rest of the cake?
