Autumn, between the other things, is definitely the season of the chestnuts, and here it is a recipe of Fulvio Marino which is absolutely giving the right value to this fruit that has been very important in the past for many peasant communities.

Indeed I am going to use chestnut flour, boiled chestnuts and chestnut honey, very very chestnut 😀

It’s important to use a strong wheat flour because the chestnut flour has to gluten so it has no strength to hold a leavened brioche dough.

Let’s see the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 400 g of strong wheat flour (I used an Italian organic “Manitoba flour” with 16% proteins and W400 strength index)
• 100 g chestnut flour
• 125 g boiled chestnuts, peeled
• 100 g butter (at room temperature)
• 150 g eggs (about 3 eggs)
• 100 ml milk
• 20 g chestnut honey
• 13 g fresh yeast
• 10 g salt

1. Mix the two flours together, add the chestnut honey, the yeast, the eggs and most of the milk, and start working the dough. Then add also the salt and the remaining milk. You have to work it for a while, because the chestnut flour has no gluten. If you use a machine let it work for a good 15 minutes. When the dough is nice smooth and homogeneous, add also the boiled chestnuts, crumbled. At the end add the butter, in 2-3 times (wait every time until absorbed by the dough).
2. Then place the dough in a bowl, cover with a plastic foil and let it rest in the fridge for 8 hours.
3. Then take it out from the fridge, wait 30 minutes and then divide the dough into 3 parts of the same size. Roll them into a long snake shape, of about 4-5 cm thick. Then cross them together, like a challah/kalács, and place it in a 30-35 cm long plumcake pan, previously greased with butter. Cover and let it grow for another 2 hours, at room temperature.
4. Then brush one broken egg all over the surface, and bake it at 180 °C, static oven, for 40 minutes.

Since it has no sugar, it is perfect for a sweet breakfast with jams or ricotta for example, but it matches perfectly also with salty preparations, with cheese, charcuterie, foie gras, etc. it can also be toasted obviously, that’s even better!