Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Chestnut-Chocolate-Coconut Cake

When chestnuts were in season, I made a point to prepare individual freezer bags of unsweetened chestnut puree to have on hand for the future months. The naturally sweet chestnuts add a special touch to a bean soup, marry beautifully with a mashed potato side dish, and an endless list of sweet treats. Most importantly, one of my 500g freezer bags was dedicated to a very special chestnut cake! Light and airy and oh so good... 

Given the fact that I am far away from my freezer back home, I picked up a small 250g bag of dried chestnuts. Not the same thing, but will make a nice substitute. Place the dried chestnuts in a large pot with plenty of water, and boil them until they become soft (it will take about 2-3 hours). Once soft, simply pass them through a vegetable press, or potato masher. (You will end up with 500g.)
Chestnut-Chocolate-Coconut Cake
500g unsweetened chestnut puree
130g ricotta (you can substitute with any soft light cheese)
100g dark chocolate
2 eggs
150g brown sugar
75g butter
100g coconut
This is a very simple recipe. Start by melting the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Once melted, add all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix.  Fold into a buttered and floured baking pan and bake for 40 minutes at 180°C.

5 comments:

Rowena said...

Wow! This is so simple and beautiful, and I know that it just has to be good (although everything you share here is good!). Recently at a restaurant I had a tris of chestnut puree/mashed potato (and something else that I can't remember) but boy was a surprised at how chestnut tastes as a side dish, especially with selvaggina. You're so right about the natural sweetness!

The Food Hunter said...

I clipped this and hope to try it soon.

Anonymous said...

oh my! that looks amazing and i am suffering from sweets withdrawl.

putting things up for later, definitely on my list for this year.

Shannon Honeybloom said...

This looks delicious!

Jennifer Galatioto said...

THIS LOOKS AMAZING!!!