Chestnut Flour Molino Zanone

Chestnut Flour Molino Zanone

Chestnut flour is made from dried chestnuts, so it is naturally gluten-free. Very starchy, full-bodied and fragrant, it is suitable for bread recipes, sponge cakes, and shortcrust pastry, but also savory recipes.After the harvest in October, the chestnuts are placed in the dryers and dried. Once deprived of brown skin and light skin, the fruits are reduced to flour by special mills.

Characteristics Chestnut flour 

Chestnut flour has a non-grainy, almost starchy consistency and a tendency to compact and clump (it is essential to sift it before use). The color, which varies from light beige to darker beige, depends on the level of toasting of the dried chestnuts, which also determines the taste and the bitterish tendency of the flour.

The bitter taste, considered by many to be a defect, may also derive, however, from the presence of fragments of skin not removed. The intense aroma, which must be distinctly perceivable even when the bag is closed, is of toasted chestnuts. In some cases, the flour has a slight smoky smell resulting from the traditional drying method.

Dried chestnuts, or chestnut seeds, from which the flour is obtained, are rich in carbohydrates and mineral salts such as potassium, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, phosphorus and chlorine. Chestnuts also contain fiber, proteins, and vitamins. The vitamins present are C, PP as well as the B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B6). Among the disadvantages, we remember that chestnuts promote abdominal bloating and are not recommended for diabetics, while they are very useful for those who play sports or are subject to physical or psychological stress. The fibers facilitate intestinal transit, rebalancing the intestinal bacterial flora and performing an effective aid in reducing cholesterol. Chestnut flour can be used for both sweets and savory products. 

In quality flours, in addition to the absence of a bitter taste and a strong taste of chestnuts, a marked sweet note emerges, so present that it is necessary, in case of salty preparations, to cut with other flours with a more neutral taste. Chestnut flour deteriorates easily and should, therefore, be stored in a cool place. To avoid risks, it can be kept in the freezer.

How to use :

The chestnut flour, precisely because of its starchy consistency, gives the preparations a compact, dry texture. It is, therefore, necessary to leave the dough to rest before cooking it, so that the flour can hydrate properly. In cakes, it is useful to include ingredients such as pieces of apple, pear or hydrated raisins, which slowly release moisture into the mixture, even after baking.

In sponge cake or shortbread cakes, it can also be used in purity, because it gives pleasant and very tasty dough. Delicate ingredients, such as ricotta cheese or mascarpone cheese, oranges, chocolate and coffee, ginger and whole cane sugar, combine perfectly with chestnut flour in sweet dishes. In savory preparations, on the other hand, it goes very well with mushrooms and other woodland products, or with foods with a strong flavor able to contrast their sweetness (pork, blue cheese or cheeses with a long maturation period).

Chestnut flour blends itself without problems with the preparation of fresh pasta, in combination with soft wheat flour or durum wheat semolina. You will have to follow your traditional recipes by replacing a third, and up to half of the quantity indicated for classic flour with chestnut flour, so that the dough can still bind without problems. You can knead and shape your dough by hand or with the help of the classic crank pasta machine.

Calories and nutritional values ​​of chestnuts

100 g of dry chestnuts contain 193 kcal / 808 KJ.

 for every 100 g of this product:

• Carbohydrates 41.8 g

• Sugars 10.7 g

• Protein 3.7 g

• Fat 2.4 g

• Cholesterol 0 g

• Total fiber 8.3 g

 

A recipe up your sleeve 

A typical Tuscan recipe based on the typical autumn "jewels": castagnaccio.

Ingredients:

• 300 g of chestnut flour,

• 30 g of sugar,

• 2 tablespoons of pine nuts, 

• 2 tablespoons of raisins, 

• 5 walnuts, 

• 3 tablespoons of olive oil,

• a pinch of salt, 

• 1 sprig of rosemary. 

Procedure: dip the raisins in warm water to soften it. In the meantime, sift the flour and work it with 1 liter of water, sugar and a pinch of salt, to obtain a thick and homogeneous mixture. Grease a mold and pour the dough evenly distributing it. Sprinkle the surface with pine nuts, rosemary needles, chopped walnut kernels, and squeezed raisins. Bake in a very hot hole at 200 degrees for about 1 hour. Serve with ricotta if you like.  

Chestnuts were native to North America as well as Europe, they are one of those foods that seem to have evolved in various cultures simultaneously as people explored edible food sources around them. Because there is no gluten, bread made entirely of chestnut flour does not rise like wheat flour and was referred to as “downbread” in earlier centuries.

Suggestion: You can make bread, soup, muffins, cakes and much more with this special and ancient flour.

17.6 ounce (500 gram)

Ingredients: Chestnuts. Humidity less than 14%

Packaging: Plastic Wrap

Product of Italy