Chestnut cream cake

For some reason, chestnuts are not that popular in U.S. And to me, nothing says winter like chestnuts. I grew up in a town that had street vendors selling fire roasted chestnuts during winter. To me they are nostalgic street food. Just the smell of them brings back so many memories for me. Snowflakes, roasted chestnuts, mulled wine, fireplace, friends...
With record breaking low temperatures in Chicago, this cake was my first choice.  Its so light, aromatic, creamy, it's really wonderful. 

The chocolate base is soaked with cherry jam that is mixed with cherry brandy. Its topped with  a chocolate cream layer with chestnut puree, a white layer with whipped cream and baileys, and chestnut puree with rum.

For the chocolate base:
85 gr. butter
85 gr chocolate melted
50 gr sugar
4 eggs
100 gr sugar
60 gr flour
Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
Cream the butter with 50 gr. of sugar and melted chocolate. Add egg yolks one at the time. Whip the egg whites with 100 gr of sugar until stiff. Fold it into the chocolate mixture. When incorporated, add flour and fold gently. Scoop the batter onto prepared 9 inch baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 25 min. Cool, and moisten the cake with  60 ml of cherry brandy mixed with 200 gr of cherry jam.

For chocolate cream:
100 ml. milk
2 teaspoons sugar
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons cornstarch
5 teaspoons powder sugar
100 gr chocolate
500 ml. heavy cream
250 gr. chestnut puree
1 tablespoon baileys
To make the cream, bring the milk to a boil. Mix egg yolk with the cornstarch and sugar. Add 2 tablespoons hot milk to temper the egg. Add egg mixture to the boiling milk, stirring over medium heat to thicken it. Move it from the stove, add powder sugar and chocolate. Mix until everything incorporates nicely. While mixture is still warm, (if its chilled, it will be hard to incorporate into the whipped cream) whip the cream and stir gradually into the chocolate mixture. Spread immediately onto the cake and freeze.
When chocolate cream is semi-frozen add white cream layer.

For white cream layer:
500 ml. heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon baileys
2 bags whip it
Whip the ingredients for the white cream layer and spreed over the chocolate cream.
Decorate the cake with chestnut paste by mixing 350 gr of chestnut puree with 2 tablespoons of rum. I used potato press for it.

Hazelnut cake with chestnut mousse

There is only a day left in this year, so I wont keep you long since you probably have many things to do.

I just want to wish you happy, healthy and wonderful New Year. Enjoy the night with your family and friends.
I have some cooking to do, but I made a cake yesterday, and I would love to share it with you. Its joconde with hazelnuts that is soaked with rum, and the  filling is made with chestnut mousse and baileys liqueur. Sounds good, ha? Its a little bit booze, but its a New Years cake, so it should be like that :)))
It light, and flavorful. I wanted to add a chocolate layer, but, I changed my mind at the last minute. Chestnut should be the star here, so I didn't want anything else to distract me from its taste.

You will need 3 joconde layers. These are the ingredients for 1. You can triple the recipe, and bake all three at once, or you can bake them separately.

2 large eggs

75 gr sugar

75 gr. roasted and peeled hazelnuts

25 gr flour

2 egg whites

3 tablespoons sugar 

1 tablespoon melted butter

If your hazelnuts are already roasted and peeled, mix them with sugar and pulse them in food processor until you get fine powder. 

Combine whole eggs with hazelnut sugar powder, and beat at medium speed until cream colored and light. Sift the flour over the beaten eggs.
In separate bowl, whip the eggs whites with 3 tablespoons of sugar until medium peeks form. Scoop one third of the meringue into the bowl with eggs, hazelnuts, and flour, and mix quickly. Add remaining meringue and gently fold. Slowly pour the melted butter and fold until the butter is uniformly mixed. Scoop the batter onto prepared 9 inch baking pan that has parchment paper on the bottom. Bake until the cake is lightly browned and firm, but not dry. 6-8 min. Cool completely. 

For brushing syrup mixture:
1/4 cup dark Jamaican rum
2 tablespoons water 

2 tablespoons sugar

For the filling:
3 tablespoons cold water

4 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons gelatin 

540 ml heavy cream

3 tablespoons baileys liqueur 

500 gr. chestnut puree

Combine water and sugar in butter melter and stir in the gelatin. Set it soften, than warm over low heat, stirring constantly until dissolves. Remove from the heat.
Pour the heavy cream into the mixer bowl and whip the cream until medium peaks.
Stir the baileys liqueur into the chestnut spread, then stir in the dissolved gelatin with a wire whisk. Fold whipped cream into the chestnut puree.
Place cake ring on a serving plate, put joconde on the bottom, brush with syrup, and put one third of the mousse on top. Repeat layering joconde, soaking syrup and chestnut filling.
Chill overnight to set the mousse. Decorate as you wish.
I did white chocolate collar and whipped cream.

Happy New Year everyone :)

Chestnut meringue

Beze korice su moja slaba tacka. Volim ih u svim mogucim varijantama i ne znam nikoga koga su ostavile ravnodusnim. Mogu da budu raskosno lepe, ili pomalo rusticne, bas kao ova. Ima bezboroj kombinacija i ja ne mogu da odolim ni jednoj.
Sa kokosom, cokoladom i tropskim vocem,  ili sa slagom, cokoladom i malinama.
Ovaj recept sam negde videla nedavno, ali ga nisam zapisala, jer nije problem napraviti ga "odokativno" :)
Imala sam puno belanaca, neka su ostala od Jasenkine torte, i jos par komada koja su ostala pre toga, pa sam mere prilagodila onome sto sam imala. Beze korice su standardne, tu nije bilo iznenadjenja, ali me je krema odusevila. Fina i u nekoj drugoj torti ali i kao samostalni desert, uzivanje na kvadrat, a jednostavna za napraviti.
Potrebno vam je:
8 belanca, 250 gr. secera, 1 kasika gustina, 1 kasicica limunovog soka, kasicica vanile.

U belanca dodajte limunov sok i mutite. Kada postane penasto, pocnite postepeno da dodajete secer i mutite dok se ne istopi. Lagano umesajte kasiku gustina i vanilu.
Na pek papiru nacrtajte 3 pravougaonika dimenzija 30x15cm. Okrenite papir da belanca ne dodju u dodir sa olovkom.  Smesu podelite na tri dela, nanesite na pravougaonik i poravnajte fino kasikom. Susite u zagrejanoj rerni na 140C sat i petnaest minuta i ostavite da se ohlade u iskljucenoj rerni. Ako volite hrskavije korice susite malo duze.

Za nadev:
500 ml. slatke pavlake, 2 krem fiksa, 300 gr. kesten pirea, 100 gr.baileys likera.
Pavlaku i krem fiks umutite u cvrst sneg. Kesten pire mutite postepeno dodavajuci liker pa sjedinite lagano sa pavlakom. Nafilujte korice, gornju ostavite bez nadeva. Dekorisite po zelji.
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Chestnut meringue

Ingredients:


8 egg whites, 250 gr. sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 tablespoon corn starch.

Draw 3 rectangles, each 30x15 cm , on baking parchment and place on cookie sheets.
Whisk the egg whites and lemon juice until standing in soft peaks, adding sugar slowly and continue whisking until the mixture is very stiff and glossy. Carefully fold in vanilla, corn starch.

Spoon the mixture on the drawen rectangles.

Bake in a preheated oven 275F/140C, for 1 hour 15 min. Without opening the oven door, turn off the oven and let the meringues cool inside the oven, then peel away the baking parchment.
While the meringues are cooling, make the filling.
Whip 500 ml. heavy cream with 2 envelopes of whip it. Set a side.Mix chestnut puree by slowly adding bailey's liquor. Carfulu fold in heavy cream.

Place meringue on a plate and top with one half of the cream. Place the second meringue on the top and spread with other half of the remaining cream.

Old fashioned chestnut cake

My thanks to Menu turistico for a wonderful recipe.

Recept za ovu tortu sam nedavno nasla na blogu Menu turistico i jedva sam cekala da je isprobam. Torta je bas onakva kakve volim. Par jednostavnih i kvalitetnih sastojaka. Imam jos par recepata sa kestenom koje bi da isprobam, ali posto nam predstoji sezona praznika, i njih cu uskoro podeliti sa vama.
Ovo nije tako velika torta, pravila sam je tek da obelezim svoj rodjendan, ali prema potrebi je mozete uvecati.
Biskvit me je odusevio, mekan je, vlazan i lagan, krema je jako fina, jedino bi volela da je ukus kestena malo intenzivniji.
Na kraju sam je posula kakaom i dekorisala karamelisanim kestenjem.

Potrebno vam je za biskvit:
100 gr. pirea od kestena, 100 gr. cokolade, 100 gr. putera, 4 jaja, 30 gr. brasna, 1/2 kasicice praska za pecivo, 2 kasike secera.
Ugrejte rernu na 180C i pripremite dva kalupa od po 20cm oblozena pek papirom.
Cokoladu i puter otopite na pari, prohaldite. Zumaca dobro umutite sa kasikom secera, pa dodajte kesten pire. Sjedinite sa otopljenom cokoladom i puterom. Dodajte belanca umucena sa kasikom secera, lagano promesajte, pa umesajte brasno sa praskom za pecivo.
Sipajte u pripremljene kalupe i pecite oko 25-35 minuta.

Za nadev:
200 gr. cokolade, 300 gr. slatke pavlake, 200 gr. kesten pirea, 1 kasicica kafe, 1 kasika ruma.
Ugrejte slatku pavlaku,a li ne dozvolite da prokljuca, pa prelijte preko useckane cokolade kojoj ste dodali kasicicu kafe. Ohladite, umutite kratko i dodajte kesten pire i rum. Mutite jos malo i time nafilujte tortu.
Napravila sam malu izmenu u receptu. Izbacila sam kafu, i koristila sam mlecnu cokoladu, jer sam htela da ukus kestena bude dominantan.
Torta je posuta kakaom i dekorisana karamelisanim kestenjem.

Peceno kestenje oljustite, isprzite secer, ali vodite racuna da ne pregori. Svaki kestencic bocnite viljuskom i provucite kroz przeni secer. Stavite na podmascen tanjir da se hladi, kako se kesten ne bi zalepio

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