Chestnut cake “Magostos”

How to prepare a chestnut cake . This autumn that has just entered brings us this seasonal fruit,  the chestnut , full of energy for the beginning of the cold.

The Nogueira de Ramuín area is full of centennial chestnut trees and thanks to my father (who picked the first ones of the season) and my sister (who brought them to me), I have prepared the first cake with chestnut flour.

But not only does it serve to prepare desserts, but it can be accompanied by any good game dish with cooked chestnuts. A boar dish with chestnuts for example is a delicious meal.

Autumn is my favorite season of the year, especially since one of the most important festivals in Ourense is celebrated: the Magostos , which aims to exalt the chestnut. For those who do not know this festival, know that it is celebrated in Ourense on November 11, San Martiño day .

It is a gastronomic celebration in which typical products of this autumn season are tasted: chorizos, churrasco, wine and chestnuts. Always accompanied by a good fire in the mountains of the area where we roast all these delicacies.

As you can see, it is a typical Galician party in all rule: food, drink and good company. It seems perfect to me and as a good ourensano who loves chestnuts I do not usually miss it even though I am in Madrid. I leave you with the preparation of this tart cake that has as its protagonist the flavor of this exquisite fruit: the chestnut.

Preparation of chestnut flour

There are two ways to prepare the base of this sponge cake: with chestnut flour or chestnut puree.

Either one is good for preparing this dessert although the texture changes, with the flour we get a tart similar to that of Santiago and with the puree it is similar to a light sponge cake.

The one that I present here is with flour, its preparation is very simple, once done we can use it for more desserts or freeze it.

1. The first thing is to roast the chestnuts in the oven. We make a small cut so that when they are roasting they do not explode in the oven.
2. Once roasted, peel them and leave the chestnut shelled to cool (such as photo 2)
3. For the crushing process it is best to break them with the help of your hands in the bowl of the crusher and at a fast speed we let it stay as in the photo 3.
4. The next step is to pass these chopped chestnuts through a strainer and sift with it until we have a flour similar to the one in photo 4.
5. This flour is the one that will give that flavor so tasty to the cake.
6. If it were pureed, all we need to do is put the chopped chestnuts (photo 3) in a saucepan with hot milk. Boil over low heat with a pinch of salt until soft.
7. Then we beat until we have a consistent cream with a texture similar to the mash.

Preparation of the cake

1. Grease a cake pan, spread with butter and sprinkle with flour.
2. In a saucepan with 1 glass of milk, simmer the 100 g of chopped chestnuts until soft and drain with a strainer.
3. We reserve the chestnut pieces for the end of the tart process and the milk for the cream.
4. Put the chestnut flour, sugar and milk from the previous step in a bowl. We beat very well until there is a light cream.
5. If we use chestnut puree instead of flour we would have to carry out the same previous process but without flour.
6. We sift the wheat flour and the baking powder, add the baking soda and the salt in the bowl. Mix with the puree and add the eggs one by one.
7. We combine the butter and the brown liquor until it is creamy, almost liquid. We add everything to the previous mix.
8. We pour the mixture into the tray and introduce the pieces of chestnuts that we have boiled with the rest of the milk, they have to be soft so that they do not stay like stones.
9. We bake the cake in the oven preheated to 190º degrees between 30 and 40 minutes. As I mentioned in some other recipe, everything depends on the oven, always look with a fork that stays dry.
10. Let cool and remove from the mold. Decorate by sprinkling the cake with icing sugar.
11. It only remains to cut a good piece and try it.

We can accompany this cake with a good shot of liqueur coffee or with hot coffee or tea.

Be sure to enjoy all the yummy sweets in our dessert recipes