Recipe: South Tyrolean chestnut hearts

South Tyrol is for the most part home to the sweet chestnut, also known as Castanea sativa.
Its fruits are usually harvested between September and October and are used in many traditional dishes.

One of South Tyrol’s best-known recipes is for chestnut hearts.

For a hearty, chocolatey result, we asked one of our members, the Naturhotel Rainer, who gave us the following recipe (serves 10):

1.5 kg chestnuts
250 g icing sugar
2 tbsp rum (optional, not for children)
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
Vanilla sugar
400 g dark chocolate
Cream to garnish

Preparation:

Boil the unpeeled chestnuts in water for 40 to 45 minutes until soft.
Then peel, divide and hollow them out.
Either press the chestnut pulp through a potato masher or pulp it using a blender.
Add the icing sugar, rum, breadcrumbs and vanilla sugar and knead it all into a soft mass.
Form the mixture into heart shapes and cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, melt the dark chocolate slowly in a bain-marie, stirring constantly.
Then, using a fork, dip the chestnut hearts into the melted chocolate tip first, leaving the top free of the mixture.
Place the hearts on baking paper to dry until the chocolate is solid. In the meantime, whip the cream with the sugar until stiff and decorate the top of the chestnut hearts using a piping bag.
Put a little of the pressed chestnut mixture on the cream and enjoy!