Marron Glacé

Chestnuts candied over several days, the syrup strengthened a little at a time.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1 kg large chestnuts, in their shells
• 1.2 kg caster sugar
• 1 litre water
• 1 vanilla pod, split
• 2 tablespoons glucose syrup

Method

1. Score each shell and simmer them 4 minutes, then peel off both the shell AND the inner brown skin while hot, a few at a time. The inner skin is the whole labour of this recipe and it will not come off cold.
2. Simmer the peeled chestnuts very gently in water for 20 minutes until just tender. Expect to break some; keep the whole ones.
3. Make a syrup of 600 g sugar, the litre of water, the glucose and the vanilla. Pour it hot over the drained chestnuts and leave 24 hours.
4. EACH DAY FOR FIVE DAYS: drain the syrup off, add 120 g more sugar, and bring it back to a boil for two minutes.
5. Pour the hotter syrup over the chestnuts and leave them to stand until the next day.
6. THE SUGAR HAS TO CLIMB SLOWLY. A strong syrup on day one draws water out faster than sugar goes in, and the chestnuts shrivel to hard pebbles. Each small step lets them exchange water for sugar without collapsing.
7. On the last day, lift them out and dry them on a rack in a 100C oven for 20 minutes until the surface is no longer sticky.
8. They keep for months wrapped individually.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes