GÂTEAU CHOCO-MARRON MERINGUÉ

Every time I go to France I of course come back with food and products that I can hardly find here or that I simply find interesting and nice-looking.

It’s the case of this nice chestnut spread with a vintage design, created by Clément Faugier :).

Well, it was staring at me from my cupboard when I finally found, on Saveur, a very warm and wintery recipe to use it. I’ve already tried it twice, changing and adding ingredients to the original recipe, and I have to admit I really loved the results.

I would suggest to keep the cake “fondant” (that means that the inside has to be moist and not completely cooked) but If you like the consistency of a cake mixture just leave it in the oven for a few more minutes :).




Gateau choco-marron meringué (adapted from Saveur):

250g butter
200g chocolate
80g chestnut spread
150g icing sugar
4 eggs
100g all purpose flour
50g chestnut flour (you can find it in any bio-shop)
110g canned chestnut (normally they are simply boiled), crumbled
50g Maizena

Meringue:

2 egg whites
40g caster sugar
4 marrons glacés (optional)
salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter and flour 4 small cake pans or a single one (24cm) and line the bottoms with parchment paper.

Melt the butter and the chocolate in the microwave (or au bain marie), then add the chestnut cream.

In another bowl whisk the eggs and the icing sugar, until the mix becomes frothy then add chestnut and wheat flours, Maizena and the chocolate mix. Stir the crumbled chestnuts into the mixture and pour it all into the pans.

Bake 20-25 min the mini-pans or 25-30 the big one; as I said you can leave the cake in the oven a bit longer if you don’t like the fondant texture.
Take out from the oven and let it cool down.

For the meringue: beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, then add the sugar and keep on beating for another minute. Spread the meringue on the cakes, crumble the marron glacés on it and brown the meringue with a blowtorch (my favourite :)) or under the grill-oven for 2 or 3 minutes.