Sweet Chestnut Puree
You'll love this sweet chestnut purée! It goes into both the cake and the frosting for the Vegan Chestnut Vanilla Cake with Chestnut Buttercream Frosting recipe. This purée is luxuriously smooth, mellow, and nutty, with a hint of vanilla from the bean and seeds. It makes about 5 cups, which is enough to both make and generously frost either two 8-inch cake pans or three 6-inch cake pans. If you have any puree left over, you can stir some into a bowl of oatmeal, spread on some toast, or use as a pastry cream in another dessert. I'm excited for you to try it!
Ingredients
- 4 cups (946 ml) non-dairy milk (I've used unsweetened almond milk)
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 vanilla bean
- 4 cups (700 grams) cooked chestnuts
Instructions
Simmer the ingredients:
- Place the almond milk, sugar, and salt in a heavy-bottomed pot. Turn the heat to low and stir occasionally until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise through the top layer. Scrape out the seeds with a knife, and add the seeds and vanilla bean to the pot.
- Add the chestnuts to the pot. Increase the heat to medium and bring to a low simmer. Stir occasionally until the liquid has reduced by about half. This should take around 40 minutes. Chestnuts should be plump and fork-tender when done.
Blend the purée and allow to cool:
- Remove the vanilla bean from the pot. Place the chestnuts and liquid into a high-speed blender. Blend until smooth. The consistency should be similar to that of peanut butter. Cool to room temperature before adding to the cake batter and frosting. Yields about 5 cups (1400 g) of puree. Place the purée in a covered container, and set aside to cool.
Notes
- If you'd like, you can make this puree a day ahead of the cake and frosting. Then you won't have to wait for the purée to cool down to room temperature first. If you’re not using the chestnut purée immediately, put a lid on the container or cover the top with plastic wrap. This will prevent a skin from forming on the top surface.
- I’ve used almond milk as the nondairy milk in this recipe. But any non-dairy milk should work well.
- You can reserve your vanilla bean pod to flavor sugar. Just rinse it, leave it out to dry, and place in a container of sugar. Or if you’d like, you can blend the bean into a powder along with a bit of sugar to distribute the vanilla flavor even more.
- For the granulated sugar, I use either organic cane sugar or sugar derived from sugar beets to ensure that it's vegan.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!