Chocolate Covered Chestnuts

Lezzetin Izinde

Tis the season to roast some chestnuts on an open fire. Have you ever done it though? I had to go clear across the world to try some. It might have something to do with the fact that American chestnut trees were devastated by chestnut blight, or maybe chestnuts are just a European thing. The ones I usually find at the grocery store are from Italy.

Perhaps you've tried marron glacé? I adore them, whenever I can find some. It's probably a good thing they're hard to come by, though. The calorie count for chestnuts soaked in sugar syrup is insane. Some shops make them in Turkey, but as you can tell from the name, it's the French who really get credit for the idea - sorry Italy.

As far as Istanbul is concerned, there are other interesting ways to prepare a chestnut or kestane. Example: Chocolate coated chestnuts. From what I understand, the chestnuts are:

1) roasted to remove the shells
2) boiled in milk, vanilla and sugar
3) coated in (dark?) chocolate, and
4) dusted with pistachios

According to Hurriyet newspaper's 100 Tastes of Istanbul - Istanbul'un 100 Lezzeti, #49 is the chocolate covered chestnut from Bahar Pastanesi in Teşvikiye.

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