What To Do with 50 Pounds of Chestnuts

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Sounds familiar? They are the lyrics to the famous "The Christmas Song" sung by Nat King Cole. 

Vendors roasting chestnuts at street corners around the holidays is a common scene in Europe. In the U.S., not so much, as the American chestnut trees were wiped out by the fungal disease called chestnut blight a century ago. Once called "the Redwood of the East," the gigantic American chestnut tree was an amazing food source for wildlife and people. Some trees survived. Our first encounter with fresh chestnuts was in Maryland, and recently in Tennessee. 

Chestnut vendor at Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) in Rome

Last month, our gracious neighbors delighted us with 50 pounds of chestnuts. The husband had to compete with the deer to get to these delicious nuts :-) Thank you Derwood and Georgia!

50 lbs of chestnuts

The majestic chestnut tree on a lovely fall day

We shared some with friends. We roasted them and ate them as snacks. They were sweet.

We boiled the chestnuts, and cook them with rice and oatmeal.

Chestnut in oatmeal

We made chestnut paste, using the recipe from Chestnut cookies aka Calzoni Di Castagne. Instead of making the dough, we used store-bought puff pastry, and baked them instead of frying. Great with a cup of coffee.

Delicious puff pastry with chestnut chocolate filling.

Ahh! Glazed chestnuts. Somehow, we could never get this right. We followed the recipe in How to make Marrons Glacés (Candied Chestnuts), made it twice and still could not get the chestnuts to be soft enough. The hot and dry summer could have something to do with it. Chestnut connoisseur relatives who got the bulk of the chestnuts concurred. 

Marrons Glacés (Candied Chestnuts)

We will be making Thanksgiving dinner with chestnut stuffing. Have a great Thanksgiving, y'all!

Do you like chestnuts? What are your experiences with them?

This post is shared on Image-in-ing, Elizabeth's blog Altered Book Lover and Skywatch Friday.

Check out these websites for more information on chestnuts:
The Story behind the Christmas Song

A Chestnut primer from Red Fern Farm in Iowa

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