Just a little too early for the Castagnaccio recipe? Yes I suppose it’s a late autumn, early winter kind of cake, a reader however requested the recipe!
Castagnaccio is a typical cake made with chestnut flour is common to the Apennine mountainous area of Tuscany. It can be eaten all year round because it’s good both warm and cold. They say in the winter it warms the heart and fingers (since you don’t need a fork but your hands to eat Castagnaccio) and when it cools down it’s round flavor matched with a sweet liquory wine makes it a perfect ending for your meal.
Ingredients
- 500 g chestnut flour
- ½ glass extra-virgin olive oil
- 50 g chopped pine nuts or walnuts
- 50 g raisins
- rosemary
- grated orange rind (optional)
Preparation
Sieve the flour and knead with warm water or milk until the dough is smooth and even. Add the oil, the pine nuts or walnuts and the raisins previously soaked in warm water and . Mix all the ingredients and pour in a baking tin greased with oil. Top with rosemary needles, pine nuts or walnuts, the orange rind (optional) and a drizzle of oil. Cook in a medium oven (150-160°C) for about an hour.
![[Photo credits: Cooperativa Zenzero http://ow.ly/gJDqq]](http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/tuscanycious/files/2012/10/foto1.jpg)
[...] Chestnut Flour from Garfagnana (DOP) – Chestnut Farina (flour) di Neccio from Garfagnana. (DOP) The use of chestnut flour in cooking goes back centuries and has its origins in the town of Garfagnana. In this mountainous area it has always been used just like normal flour made from grain is used in the plains lower down. The chestnut tree is therefore locally known as the ‘bread tree’ and its fruits, the chestnuts, as ‘tree bread’. [...]
The recipes is great I just want to say after you mix the dry ingredients into the water is better if let them sit on for a hour before you poor it into the oiled sheet pan and bake it.
This allowed to the chestnut flour to absorb better and intense flavors, and when is baking will be bake more evenly and has less cracks after the cooking time.
Anyway this just my tip to this wonderful Tuscan recipes.
Best Regards
http://www.tuscanycuisine.com
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