Marron Glace
Also called ‘glazed chestnuts’, they are a luxury dessert, very seasonal and expensive (they say they are even around $ 4 to $ 5 per piece ?? !!), but they pay off - here’s a recipe on how you can make your own candied chestnuts. Making this extravagant dessert itself is not demanding, it takes a little longer, (it will take you about 4-5 days!), Let it be a challenge for you, rather than reject you!
Preparation steps
- Remove the chestnut shells with a knife, being careful not to damage them from the inside.
- Put the chestnuts in a large cooking pot, cover them with water, bring to a boil and cook for 8-10 minutes when they boil (chestnuts cook faster and shorten the cooking time for them… chestnuts are cooked for me between 8 and 10 minutes, I must say that this is perhaps the most sensitive phase of cooking and the success of the whole project depends on it).
- Clean the chestnuts quickly from the membranes, it will be easy, if you work in gloves, not to burn your hands, while cleaning them keep them in hot water, because if they cool down, the membranes will not be removed as easily as here.
- Put sugar, water and vanilla pod in a cooking pot, bring to a boil over low heat, stirring all the time, until sugar is dissolved.
- Boil gently for 5 minutes, then carefully add the chestnuts.
- Cook them for 10 minutes, so that they boil slowly over low heat. Remove from the heat and discard the vanilla pod.
- Extinguish the fire, cover and leave overnight in the cold or at least 12 hours.
- Bring to the boil again and simmer for another 1 minute.
- Let it stand again, this time for 24 hours.
- Repeat a couple of times, until the chestnuts absorb the syrup (it should not take more than 3-4 times).
- Cooking will prevent the crystallization process over time - depending on the above steps.
- Drying process: preheat the oven to 60 ° C, cover the baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Distribute the glazed chestnuts evenly, leave them to dry in the oven, open the door, open them a few inches and so dry them for 2 hours, until they harden.
- Cool completely. Store them in a container lined with parchment paper.
Serving
I can stay fresh for about 2 weeks- but believe me, it will be eaten sooner -certainly !! I used a large variety of chestnuts, called chestnuts - they are bigger and sweeter than other chestnuts! Chestnuts that you glazed or cracked in the process can be added to any cake, they can be used to decorate cakes, you can pour chocolate over them, or rum, and to decorate the whole chestnuts, use powdered sugar! I read the recipe for the first time in a "Mila" Christmas edition, but I supplemented it with a thorough "browsing" on the Internet. Available in stores from November to March, and glazed / candied chestnuts are seriously "the most luxurious sweets that exist". An old copy of the Larousse Gastronomique encyclopedia says: Chestnuts that are poached in sugar syrup and then glazed are called Marrons Glacès, originated during the reign of Louis XIV and today are mainly produced in Privas, in Ardèche.Ardèche, is in the south of France. It is the epicenter of French chestnut production, more than 50% of all chestnuts in France are grown there. They have a chestnut festival in the fall to celebrate and many of the local restaurants include chestnut-based dishes and desserts on the menus. We must not fail to mention "Marunada" in Lovran and "Kestenijada" in Hrvatska Kostajnica, where festivals of a similar type are also being prepared. Chestnut is one of the localities for chestnuts and Kostajnica was named after him because they have a lot of chestnut trees. Maroons are larger and sweeter than chestnuts. As for the origin mentioned by Larousse - I also read in other sources, that the seemingly candied chestnut was served as a candy 150 years earlier in Piedmont, in northwestern Italy, near the Swiss-French border. Marrons glaces are a work full of love - they involve many different processes and a lot of painstaking time. No wonder they are expensive but of course worth every kuna, pound or dollar…, yes and €!
