Italian chestnut cake

Italian chestnut cake

This Italian chestnut cake is a result of my trip to Corsica. If you are an avid cook and traveler, I am sure you know what it feels like to buy an “exotic” ingredient from a place you visited and then get home without knowing what to do with it. This is what happened when I went to this divine island on the Southern coast of France and bought chestnut flour. I mean we got a lot of delicious things there, from local honey to dried wild boar salami, and it was all consumed pretty fast. But chestnut flour, well, I didn’t know what to do with it.

So when I clearing out the pantry this weekend and stumbled upon, I decided to make this wonderful cake inspired by an Italian friend’s mom’s recipe. It is the perfect coffee or breakfast cake: moist, not too sweet, reasonably healthy and bonus: gluten-free. It is right up there with my favorite coffee cake on a cold day with a big mug of tea or coffee.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup chestnut flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/3 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tbsp honey
  • 1 cup milk (plant-based or regular)
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 3/4 cup raisins (you can sub this for cranberries, chopped up apricot, figs or other dried fruit)
  • 1/2 cup pine nuts (you could also sub these I guess with pecans or walnuts but I prefer pine nuts)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 175C
  2. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, spices and salt)
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, add milk, honey, vanilla and oil
  4. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture until just combined
  5. Add raisins and nuts into the batter
  6. Line an 8 or 9 inch round baking pan with parchment paper and pour the batter into it
  7. Bake in oven for around 40 minutes
  8. Take out and let cool on a rack until ready to serve
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on email
Email
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp