Crème de Marron Recipe

Chestnuts
Same weight of sugar (brown makes for a nicer colour - it is a bit wishy washy looking otherwise - but both brown and white taste good)
100ml of water (or a bit more) per kg
Splash of vanilla essense or a vanilla pod

Shell the chestnuts (I find the best way is to put a long slash or cross one one side with a sharp knife and boil for about 5 mins then remove skins while still hot), try to get the inner skin off too otherwise the crème can be a bit gravelly - but if you can't be arsed (as I can't) it will come out fine anyway.
Boil in the water for a few minutes more add the vanilla pod if you are using (or until cooked at which point they will crumble easily when pressed with a fork)
Add the sugar and heat up to a boil (careful it can bubble and splash)
Let it cool a little and liquidise (remove vanilla pod before blending if you are using) or push through a sieve (much more labourious although I managed to do it reasonably quickly). You can add a bit more water at this point if you want and boil a bit off after- can make it easier.
The mixture should be thick like peanut butter or nutella (perhaps a bit runnier).

You can now reheat and put in to jars or just keep in the fridge. You can also 'can' or 'bottle' to keep for longer. We haven't got a pressure canner yet but hope to get one soon (before the chestnut season is over).

Crème de Marron is lovely in cakes (makes nice moist cakes, I will be making one soon so will put up the recipe soon), mixed in to yoghurt, baked with apples, spread on toast or just eaten (guilitly) from the jar with a teaspoon. Mmmm do you think it would be nice in hot chocolate?

Lovely fat chestnutsv

After pureeing

In the jars