Baking relaxes me and eating relaxes me, so I’m always on the hunt for a fun and easy recipe. Thanks to Twitter I found one.

A fellow blogger, Italian Notes, posted a recipe of castagnaccio (chestnut cake) on Twitter last week, so I thought I would have a go and test it out myself. How exciting, it’s like checking off one of the many many pins on Pinterest!

I then googled other chestnut recipes that used farina di castagne (chestnut flour) to see what versions were out there… uh, too many. Some call for milk, some call for orange peels—so, I decided to try at least two versions at once. Keep in mind that all versions call for raisins, but I left them out in mine even though I included them on the ingredients list.

Batch 1—Castagnaccio, traditional

Ingredients

• 250g chestnut flour
• 2.5 cups cold water
• 50g pine nuts
• 50g walnuts
• 75g raisins
• 3tbs olive oil
• 3tbs sugar
• a pinch (or two) of salt
• 2 sprigs of rosemary

Bake

• soak raisins in hot water
• pass the flour through a sieve and put in a large bowl
• add water, it should be a bit watery
• add all of the ingredients besides the rosemary & mix well
• pour the mixed contents into a greased pan up to 1cm thick
• sprinkle the rosemary needles and extra pine nuts on top
• bake for 30-40m at 200c, cracks on top mean it’s ready

Batch 2—Castagnaccio, sponge-type

Ingredients

• 150g chestnut flour
• 1.5 cups cold water
• 15g baking soda
• 20g pine nuts
• 20g walnuts
• 35g raisins
• 2tbs olive oil
• 2tbs sugar
• 200g milk
• 3tbsp unsalted butter
• a pinch (or two) of salt
• 2 sprigs of rosemary

Bake

• soak raisins in hot water
• pass the flour through a sieve and put in a large bowl
• add water, it should be a bit watery
• add all of the ingredients besides the rosemary & mix well
• pour the mixed contents into a greased pan
• sprinkle the rosemary needles and extra pine nuts on top
• bake for 60m at 200c

Can you guess which is batch one and batch two? 🙂

In all honesty, this was not my favorite thing I’ve ever baked, I may just stick to baking banana bread. It had a really unique taste and undoubtedly would have been better with ice cream or yogurt on top! According to my very Italian husband, I baked it correctly and it’s something you only eat once in awhile—not really known as anyone’s favorite, just more like a traditional, seasonal thing.

Have you tried castagnaccio or let alone chestnuts? I’ve never eaten them in Miami, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some readers have never tried a chestnut before. My favorite way to eat them is roasted.