Chestnut cake from Lunigiana in Tuscany
Francesca Farrari runs an agriturismo and an olive mill in Lunigiana Tuscany. And she makes the best castagnaccio chestnut cake I have ever tried.
To me chestnuts will always be acquired taste, but Tuscans are nuts about the mealy fruit, so when we visited Francesca Ferrari’s olive mill in the hills outside Pontremoli and heard rumours that she makes the best chestnut cake in Lunigiana, I had to give it a try. Fortunately Francesca was quite willing to share the recipe, and the rumours were absolutely true. Her chestnut cake is remarkably good, and not as dry as the castagnaccio from Liguria.
Frencesca’s recipe is based on ‘cup’ measures, which I have interpreted as a coffee cup of 150 ml.
Francesca Ferrari uses her own gourmet olive oil for the chestnut cake
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups of chestnut flour
1 cup of normal wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of milk
1 cup of olive oil – Francesca recommends Toscano IGP of course
Preparation
Whip egg whites until they become stiff and foamy
Beat egg yolks and sugar with a electric mixer until white.
Sieve the chestnut flour, wheat flour, vanilla sugar and baking powder into the egg yolks.
Mix well and stir with milk and olive oil.
Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture.
Bake the chestnut cake for 30 minutes at 180 C / 356 F.
If you like chestnuts and visit Italy in the autumn and winter months remember to try the caldarroste street food specialty
Thank you for the recipe, Mette :)
My pleasure.
That looks amazing. I am not sure I have ever seen chestnut flour. I will have to look for it.
I’m not sure where to buy it in Denmark either.
This looks delicious! Chestnut flour sounds like an intriguing option! It can likely be made by grinding nuts in a blender in the same way that almond meal is produced.
It’s worth a try, but I wouldn’t count on it. Chestnut flour has the same texture as wheat flour, though the colour is more grey.
I’ve never baked with chestnut flour or olive oil – in a cake recipe – but as I love chestnuts I have an inkling that I’d love this cake. Thanks for the recipe.
I hope it lives up to your expectations.
What an easy to make and delicious recipe! Thank you for it!
Glad you like it.
Thank you for the recipe. I will try it!
Hope you’ll like it as much as I do. Chestnut cakes aren’t for everyone:)