One of my earliest childhood memories is climbing on my grandparents' garage roof and picking fresh chestnuts off the tree. I wasn't in the loop on how they were cooked, but I vividly remember the beautiful shine of the fresh picked fruit and the toasty creamy experience of eating its contents. This weekend I got to relive part of that by purchasing fresh chestnuts at the farmer's market and turning them into delicious donuts.
I took the sage advice of the farm stand attendant and cooked the chestnuts the way she told me - 20 minutes in boiling water, then I slit each one and baked them at 500F for another 10 minutes. Most of the chestnuts cracked open and were easy to break up with bare hands, and others remained a bit more stubborn, but the insides were nutty and soft in all of them. I used a strawberry corer to remove all the contents into a clean bowl then measured out what I needed for this recipe.
I chose a light but flavorful milk option - unsweetened vanilla almond milk - to make the chestnut puree. You might have to use a bit more to get a smooth consistency, an immersion blender worked really well to get this task done with minimal cleanup. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg, oil and sugar together with the flavor extracts (vanilla with rum optional) to create a light and creamy base for the batter - you're looking for a paler color than you started out with and a lightened up texture. Mix in chestnut puree, yogurt and applesauce - I added these to fill in for leaving out some of the oil and sugar from the original recipe to lighten it up.
Mixing the dry ingredients in a separate bowl is optional but a good idea to get them mixed together uniformly and break up any clumps - that way you can minimize the amount of mixing for the final batter and get a lighter, more tender crumb. I used cake flour, though AP flour would probably work just fine. See notes for cake flour substitution using all purpose flour and corn starch. Pipe or spoon in the lightly oiled donut pan, then bake at 355F for 14-16 minutes, until cooked through. You can test by poking a toothpick through the thickest part of the donut, if it comes out clean then it's ready to come out. Turn out on a cooling rack and let the donuts come to room temperature (if you have that sort of patience :) ).
Dip in the glaze and sprinkle with preferred toppings right before serving, or save in an airtight container if you have any donuts left over. I made two options, both were delicious in their own right - a white glaze made simply from greek yogurt and maple syrup, perfect canvas for chocolate or rainbow sprinkles and a chocolate glaze made with black sesame paste, maple syrup and cocoa powder. We couldn't wait so we served them with fruit as dessert, only a pair made it to breakfast the next day. They were still fluffy and tender the next day, the kids loved them just as much!
Chestnut donuts
Makes 6 thick donuts
Ingredients
- 110 g cooked chestnuts, shelled (see notes)
- 50 ml almond milk
- 1 egg
- 1 oz vegetable oil
- 5 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 oz greek yogurt
- 1 oz applesauce
- rum extract
- 110g cake flour (one scant cup)
- 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- Glaze and toppings of your choosing (see notes)
Method
- Preheat oven at 355F.
- Blend chestnuts and milk into a smooth paste - I used an immersion blender, which make cleanup a bit easier, but a blender or food processor would work too. Add a bit more milk as needed, you're aiming for peanut butter consistency.
- In a bowl, whisk eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla extract until smooth and airy.
- Add yogurt, applesauce and chestnut puree and mix until well incorporated.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add dry ingredient to wet mixture and fold gently, careful not to overmix.
- Spoon into lightly oiled donut pan.
- Bake 14-18 minutes, or until donuts are cooked through (passing toothpick test).
- Remove from oven, turn over onto cooling rack and let come to room temperature.
- Dip in glaze as desired and decorate with sprinkles or fresh fall fruit.
- Enjoy!
Notes:
- I boiled the chestnuts for 20 minutes, then cut a slit at the bottom of each one and roasted in a 500F oven for 8 minutes. At that point most of them had cracked more, had a lovely aroma and were easy to split open by hand (they're HOT so let them cool first). I used a strawberry corer to get them out of the peel when they were more stubborn, though many came loose of their shell on their own.
- Vanilla almond milk lends a beautiful flavor to the chestnut puree. You can use any plant or dairy milk you prefer, but add a dash more vanilla extract if you use plain flavor.
- Original recipe calls for 50ml oil and 90g sugar and no yogurt/applesauce, but I wanted to lighten up the batter a bit and I loved the light moist crumb I got.
- If you don't have cake flour, all purpose would work pretty well too, consider substituting 1tsp of the AP flour with corn starch as a good cake flour substitute for a softer crumb.
- I dipped my donuts in one of two easy glaze options: maple yogurt (greek yogurt, a dash of maple syrup) and black sesame chocolate (black sesame paste, maple syrup, brut cocoa, milk as needed to get a silky consistency), and topped with chocolate and rainbow sprinkles to the kids' preferences.
- These donuts are so moist they would be delicious plain, dipped in a simple ganache or simply drizzled with a dark and flavorful maple syrup.
