I’m going to call this my snowstorm cake. Not because it
looks like a snowstorm (although a dusting of confectioner’s sugar could take
care of that pretty fast) but because I was snowed in all day this past Sunday
(17.6 inches!), and I wanted to bake.
I had all the necessities—flour, butter, eggs—but I wanted
to experiment with nuts. Except I forgot that my daughter had cleaned out my
nut supply over the holidays when she was visiting. Which left one lonely
little package of . . . chestnuts?
I have never cooked with chestnuts. I bought the package
because I’d never seen it for sale before. Why not give it a shot? I set out to
find a recipe for something baked that included chestnuts.
I came up with some odd and interesting ideas, both sweet
and savory, but the only one that grabbed my attention was a 1999 recipe from
Bon Appetit (I used to love that magazine!) for a cake flavored with maple
syrup. Aha! I had plenty of maple syrup (which I bought in Granby, Massachusetts, from
the Parker family, whose sugar house I visited because I always wanted to see
how maple syrup was made). So I was off to the races.
As you may have noticed, we here at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen
seldom leave a recipe alone—we tinker with it, we swap out ingredients, and we
have fun. That’s true in this case. The original recipe called for mashing up
half the chestnuts and combining them with some of the other ingredients. I
tried, really, I did. These chestnuts, soft and lovely though they might be,
would not mash. I gave up and just threw the chopped bits in (the other half of
them get scattered on top but then disappear into the batter). It all came out
fine.
And wait until you get to the icing part—it’s wicked! And
easy.
Chestnut Cake with
Maple Glaze
For
the Cake:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking
powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-3/4 cups
peeled roasted chestnuts (12 oz) or jarred chestnuts (8 oz)
3/4 cup plus 1
Tblsp light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1
stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (real)
maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
extract
3 large eggs
Preheat the
oven to 375 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8x8x2 baking pan. [Confession: I
don’t have one, so I used a 9" springform pan, which is roughly the same
volume. It worked fine.)
Sift together
the dry ingredients.
Coarsely chop
the chestnuts. Split into two equal parts.
 |
| The chestnuts (they are peeled) |
 |
| A single chestnut |
 |
| The chestnuts, chopped |
Mix 3/4 cup
brown sugar, butter, maple syrup and vanilla in the bowl of your stand mixer,
or mix with hand-held mixer. Beat until well-blended.
Add the eggs
one at a time, beating between each.
Beat in flour
mixture. Stir in half the chopped chestnuts.
Spread the
batter in the pan. Sprinkle the top with the remaining chopped chestnuts, and
the extra Tblsp of brown sugar.
 |
| Ready for the oven |
Bake for 25-30
minutes or until a tester comes out with only a few moist crumbs.
Remove the cake
from the oven and cool in the pan on a rack.
 |
| Baked |
For the Icing:
3/4 cup
powdered sugar
1/4 cup (1/2
stick) unsalted butter, melted
4 Tblsp maple
syrup
In a small
bowl, blend the powdered sugar, melted butter and maple syrup and beat until
there are no lumps and the icing forms thick ribbons.
Pour over the
cooled cake.
Let stand until
icing is set (about 20 minutes).
My verdict? The
chestnuts have a mild pleasant flavor and add an interesting chewy texture to
the cake. I would make this one again, if I ever find a package (or a jar or
can?) of chestnuts again. The icing I would eat with a spoon any time!
Yes, it does snow in Ireland! Spoiler alert: the snow melts.
Find it for preorder at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
www.sheilaconnolly.com
