For quite a while I have been wanting to experiment with chestnut flour, I think this stems from a holiday memory in idyllic Tuscany, when we stayed in a house over looking a chestnut grove and in it was the cutest rustic drying house. I was fascinated with the gnarly trees, the nuts and the recipes they were used in, chestnut flour is used in Italy to make pasta, pancakes and cakes amongst other things.
Chestnut flour is naturally gluten free and is something you will need to seek out if you want to bake with it as its not routinely stocked in most health food shops, this is possibly due to a shortish shelf life but you can obtain it easily by mail order and most shops will happily order it in for you. If you are baking for a coeliac ensure the flour is truly gluten free.
Chestnuts are synonymous with the festive season so I decided to come up with a biscuit recipe which uses this lovely flour, combining it with maple syrup to give a lovely smoky earthy flavor and use my lovely snowflake cutters to give a seasonal twist to this bake.
This recipe makes about 12 to 15 cookies, depending on the size of the cutters you use. These would make a lovely gift wrapped in cellophane and lovely festive ribbon or a parchment package. Don't expect a crunchy biscuit these are more tender, the snowflakes aren't overtly sweet either.
What you need
- 12 tbsp chestnut flour (I used Shipton Mill) and little extra for rolling out purposes
- 3 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 egg
- Icing sugar for sprinkling purposes
- Mix all the ingredients in a food processor
- Tip out on to a floured piece of baking parchment, roll out to just a little thinner than a pound coin and using a cutter to cut out the snowflakes.
- Place on a baking tray (I use a silicon sheet to ensure they don't stick)
- Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c for 10 -15 minutes until just turning golden
- Cool on wire rack, they firm up more on cooling
- Sprinkle with icing sugar or ice with glace icing if you like.
- Store in a tin
This month we are linking up with Treat Petite created by Cakeyboi and hosted this month by The Baking Explorer, the theme this month being Christmas.
We are also linking up to Family Foodies hosted by Bangers n Mash and Eat your Veg, the theme being festive foodie traditions, as these snowflakes are liable to become a new tradition in this household as they are delicious and ideal to baked as a gift particularly for adults.
And lastly December's Teat time treats hosted by Karen over at Lavender and Lovage and Jane at Hedgecombers. This months theme is Glitter, sprinkles, candles and shiny stuff, this bake I think qualifies as it has lots of sprinkled icing sugar and the staging includes candles.
