it’s winter, and chestnuts are in season. in hong kong, roasted chestnuts are a popular street food. you can smell them a mile away. people also love using chestnuts in desserts, such as cake fillings and dessert soups. for us, we used it to create a filling for our crepe cake (recipe coming soon).
we bought the packaged unshelled raw chestnuts, which makes life a lot easier. but if you’re feeling adventurous, then buy the fresh ones, it’s a lot of work though. you would have to shell the chestnuts, soak them in water to soften the skin, peel off the skin with a knife, and then finally cook them (yeah, i thought you’d see it our way). you can also buy ones that are both shelled and cooked. if so, you can skip the first step in the recipe.
use the cream as a filling for cakes, crepes, and whatever you can think of… or just eat it on its own, we won’t judge 🙂
chestnut peeled 1 cup
water 2 cup
sugar 1 cup + 1 tbsp, divided
heavy cream 1 cup
- cook the chestnut in 2 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar until soft, around an hour (save the cooking water for the next step). we use a pressure cooker, and it took around half an hour
- in a food processor, add half a cup of the chestnut water and the cooked chestnut, puree until smooth
- refrigerate the chestnut puree until chilled
- whip the heavy cream with 1 tbsp of sugar until stiff
- fold the whipped cream into the chestnut puree
1 cup of peeled raw chestnuts
puree the chestnuts with 1 cup of chestnut water in a food processor until smooth
whip the heavy cream until stiff
fold the whipped cream into the chestnut puree
Homemade in Hong Kong 
Oh MY!
This brings back memories. I’ve been to HK a few times, and remember well the roasted chestnuts sold by those street vendors. NY has them, too. I was trying to capture the memories by buying fresh chestnuts and then roasting them in the oven after making a slit in the shells. Would you know it, a couple of them exploded! The oven was a mess! Next time, I’ll do what you did, buy the packaged ready to enjoy nuts instead! XOXO, Angie.
yes they do explode! that’s why we prefer using the shelled ones. we learned the hard way too haha!
I bet you could do this with coconut cream & no sugar for a paleo version… I’d love to try that!
This is a great recipe. I bought the ready canned chestnut puree last year and it was far too sweet and really expensive! Will make this recipe this time! 🙂