Perhaps one of the most chic preparations of chestnuts is marron glacé, that jam / glaze of a seasonal fruit that allows you to eat it throughout the year, despite the fact that it is now considered almost a gastronomic object of old-fashioned collectibles.
Toasted, peeled, boiled, without the last skin that must be removed with the utmost care because the chestnut must remain intact, successively bathed in syrup and dried to be covered with icing sugar: hence its price.
Finding them is not easy either, but every time I have the caprichazo I go to Pastelerías Mallorca because the ones they make are wonderful, at least they were the ones my grandmother had at home from time to time.
This cake is really simple: the only trick is to make a good cookie base and a silky chocolate mousse, find the glacé brown evoking memories of autumn;
but we could perfectly substitute it for a sweet chestnut cream, which is a little bit with a quince texture but more creamy.
You can also do it with a roasted pumpkin cream or even sweet potato, emulating those Catalan robiols where this vegetable becomes part of the sweet recipe book.
For my taste, the ideal chocolate mousse for this cake is made with powerful chocolate, so that it has a marked cocoa flavor with a certain final bitterness that counteracts the sweetness and earthiness of the chestnut.
I like not to do it only with whipped cream because it is more dense so I always add a little egg, both the white and the yolk, because that way it is silkier, just like thanks to the action of the butter.
If you want to use a less intense chocolate there is no problem either.
Another possible option for the cake is to make a short dough on the base instead of a cookie base, although the latter is much faster and easier and means that we do not need to go through the oven at any time with this easy and fast cake.
Difficulty
Easy, and with great results.
Ingredients
For a 18 cm mold
Biscuit base
150 g of digestive style biscuits
1 teaspoon of cocoa
65g butter
1 teaspoon of sugar
For the chocolate mousse
250 g of 70% chocolate
1 egg
200 g whipping cream
30 g of icing sugar
70g butter
1 teaspoon of cocoa optional
further
8 glacé brown chestnuts or 100 g of sweet chestnut cream
Preparation
The first thing is to prepare the base of the cake.
To do this, put baking paper in the mold and spread the edges with butter, and that butter also paste a baking paper all over the ring so that the base can be removed later.
Crush the cookie very finely with the robot or chopper on one side, mix with the cocoa and sugar.
Melt the butter in the microwave or in a saucepan, being careful not to burn it and mix with the cookie.
Cover the base of the mold, squashing very well with a spoon, and go up the edges approximately two centimeters, with patience.
We will make the shape of a tartlet.
Freeze.
While the base freezes, prepare the chocolate mousse: melt the chocolate with the butter in the microwave little by little, stirring constantly or in a water bath, taking care not to burn.
Reserve.
On the other hand, mount the cream, which must be very cold, with the help of a few rods, until it is very firm.
Reserve.
Also whip the egg white with the icing sugar until you get a firm meringue.
Mix the melted chocolate and butter with the yolk when it is no longer hot.
Add the egg whites with enveloping movements and then the cream with enveloping movements.
When it is well mixed put into a pastry bag.
Cut four chestnuts into small pieces and arrange on the base of the cake, spread, or arrange the chestnut cream.
Cover on top with the chocolate mousse, making the shape that each one wants, and finish on top with the rest of the glacé brown.
Refrigerate at least a couple of hours, carefully unmold and serve.
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