INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Halve chestnuts with a heavy knife or cleaver. Place in a very
large skillet or saucepan and add enough water to cover them. Boil
for about 10 minutes or until the shells can easily be removed.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Remove chestnuts, a few at a time, from the water. Peel off shells
and husks, then place nuts in a large heavy saucepan. Add water,
sugar, and vanilla bean to the pan and stir to mix in the sugar. The
liquid should just cover the chestnuts. (Add more water if it
doesn't.)
4. Bake uncovered for 2 to 3 hours. (Time will vary considerably,
depending upon dryness of the nuts.) Stir nuts every 30 minutes,
adding water, if necessary, until they are very tender and the syrup
is very thick.
5. Let chestnuts cool completely in the syrup, then puree them in
batches in a food processor or blender, adding milk or cream if you
want to have a thinner puree. Press the entire mixture through the
fine disc of a food mill. Divide the puree among 1- or 2-cup freezer
containers. Seal, date, and freeze.
From Helen Witty and Elizabeth Schneider Colchie, Better Than
Store-Bought: A Cookbook (NY: Harper & Row, 1979, ISBN 0-06-014693-1,
out of print), pp. 248 - 249. This recipe is for a chestnut puree
that may be served as-is or combined with liquors, creams, custards,
and the like to make more elaborate preparations an all-purpose
chestnut dessert base, in other words.
Posted to fatfree digest by Jayne Spielman <jayne@bridge.com> on May
16, 1999, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

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