Chocolate Chestnut Cake
·Roast the chestnuts and blend
Score the chestnuts and roast them in the oven for 15–20 minutes at 200°C. Put the roasted chestnuts and almonds into a blender and blend as finely as possible.
Add the milk
Mix the blended chestnuts and almonds with milk to form a paste. You can blend it once more with a hand blender to make the paste even smoother.
Melt the chocolate and butter
In a saucepan over very low heat, melt the chocolate together with the butter.
Egg yolk cream and whipped whites
Crack the eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the yolks with the sugar until you get a smooth, pale yellow cream. Whip the whites into stiff peaks.
Fold everything together carefully
Stir the beaten egg yolks and sugar into the melted chocolate and butter. Fold this chocolate mixture into the chestnut paste. Finally, very gently fold in the whipped egg whites.
Bake
Grease a 23 cm round springform tin with butter and dust it with fine plain flour. Pour in the batter and bake in an oven preheated to 170°C.
Baking time
Bake for 25–30 minutes. The surface should set, but when you move the tin, the whole cake should wobble slightly – it shouldn't be completely baked through in the middle.
Serving
You can serve the cake fully cooled or slightly warm, depending on preference. Either way, always serve it with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream – it's the perfect combination.
