Chestnut Pound Cake « HappyTummy

Chestnut Pound Cake

February 11, 2009 · 22 Comments

Have you ever had a recipe you were dying to make, but couldn’t because you couldn’t find a specific ingredient? Ever since I saw this recipe in Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert, I’ve been obsessed with wanting to make it. But this recipe called for chestnut flour, and for the life of me, I could not find it. For months, I looked everywhere–Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, natural foods markets, ethnic grocery stores, chain grocery stores…you name it, I looked for it. Any time I walked into a store, I’d always keep my eye out for it.

One day when my sister was visiting, we happened to be shopping at a Caputo’s, a local family-owned grocery store. It’s owned by an Italian-American family, but really features foods of all different cultures–Indian, Middle Eastern, Asian, South American, European…it’s really quite amazing. Anyway, talk about coincidence–as I was complaining to my sister about how I couldn’t find chestnut flour anywhere, we turned a aisle corner and voila–there, on a shelf of repackaged bulk items, sat a small bag of chestnut flour! We were both so excited.

So this past weekend, I finally baked Alice Medrich’s Chestnut Pound Cake. Well, I can say that this recipe was worth all of that searching and waiting. Holy moly, this was delcious. I grew up eating roasted chestnuts (yes, we roasted them on an open fire–does anyone still do that?) and I love the subtly sweet, dry, mealy, nutty taste of them. This cake really brought out all of those flavors. A very dense, very moist, very rich cake that just oozed chestnut flavor.

I was very pleased with the cake, especially since I made some fairly significant changes to the recipe. While the original recipe called for rum, I used Kahlua instead, which was quite tasty. I also substituted some white whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour and replaced a portion of the butter with Smart Balance. I omitted two tablespoons of the butter and instead added golden flaxseed, which I toasted and ground myself–this gave the pound cake a very lovely nutty flavor and some texture, especially since I didn’t include the walnuts. Finally, I dusted the cake with some powdered sugar, just to make it look nice.

B loved this cake so much–he says it’s the best sweets recipe I’ve ever made. Plus, he was impressed with the Bundt pan’s design–”That’s too pretty to eat!” he said (For those of you wondering, it’s Williams-Sonoma’s Heritage Bundt Pan!). I froze half of the cake, since it’s just the two of us in this house and there is no way we can finish this off right now. Next time, I’ll probably halve the recipe and bake it in a loaf pan, or maybe do mini Bundts.

So, making this recipe got me wondering–what other recipes call for ingredients that are impossible to find? I’m curious to hear other people’s stories!

You may also like…

Alice Medrich’s Spelt Pound Cake
Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet Brownies

Recipe: Chestnut Pound Cake
Adapted from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich

1 cup (4.5 oz) all-purpose flour
1 cup (4.5 oz) white whole wheat flour
1 cup (4.5 oz) chestnut flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cups Egg Beaters, at room temperature
14 Tbsp. Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend, softened
2 Tbsp. ground toasted golden flaxseeds
2 cups turbinado sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/3 cup Kahlua (or any sweet dark liqueur)
1 ½ cups (6oz) coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

POSITION A RACK in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Spray a 10-12 cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray.

In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, soda, and salt together, then sift the mixture three times. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and Egg Beaters with a fork to combine the whites and yolks; set aside.

In a bowl of a stand mixer (use the paddle attachment), beat the butter for a few seconds until creamy. Add the sugar in a steady stream and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beating constantly, dribble the eggs into the butter mixture a little bit at a time, taking 2 to 3 minutes to add them all.

Stop the mixer and add one-third of the flour mixture and beat on low speed only until no flour is visible. Stop the mixer and add half of the buttermilk and half of the liqueur and beat only until the liquid is absorbed. Repeat with half of the remaining flour, then all of the remaining buttermilk and liqueur, and finally the remaining flour with the walnuts if using. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan(s). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for about 10 minute before unmolding.

Tap one side of the pan against the counter to release the cake, then tap the other. Invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Turn the preferred side up before cooling the cake completely.

Wrapped airtight, the cake keeps well at room temperature for up to 3 days; or freeze for up to 3 months.

Tags: Cakes · Dessert

22 responses so far ↓

1 Heather Peskin // Feb 12, 2009 at 2:26 pm

Great looking pound cake! I am definitely putting this on my to make soon list. I suppose we could always order the chestnuts in syrup on line but the mailing costs are so high it makes me hesitate.
2 colloquial cook // Feb 12, 2009 at 2:36 pm

You’d be soo happy in France, chestnut flour (and weird flours in general – kamut, wholewheat small and long grain spelt, rye and what not) is widely available in any health food store!! Great looking cake, and interesting addition of the ground flax… I need to try that soon!
3 Maya // Feb 12, 2009 at 3:10 pm

Alice’s recipe is always a winner! I am yet to try this recipe…
4 May // Feb 12, 2009 at 3:29 pm

Sounds like a very delicious cake! I’d love to make it one day once I manage to get the chestnuts ingredients (absolutly not available here).
And I love your cake pan, so pretty!
5 bill // Feb 12, 2009 at 3:54 pm

where did you get that pretty cake pan? great pics!
6 sandra // Feb 12, 2009 at 5:47 pm

I saw your beautiful cake on foodgawker and as soon I read Alice Medrich, I ran into your blog.. and I’m not desappointed at all! What a great recipe! I’ve always wanted to try her chestnut chocolate torte on bittersweet.. maybe I should try 1st with this one!
Colloquial Cook is right: finding chestnut flour in Paris is easy.. much easier than finding such a beautiful cake pan ;)
7 Jacque // Feb 12, 2009 at 9:22 pm

Mmmm, it looks rich and delicious! I’m glad you finally found some chestnut flour after all of your looking.

That pan is fantastic.
8 Dana Treat // Feb 12, 2009 at 10:22 pm

Love that pan! I finally killed my bundt pan so it’s time for a new one. I think I’ll get one that looks like that. Great job getting the cake out in one piece!
9 Mrs Ergül // Feb 13, 2009 at 1:42 am

What a lovely bundt pan!!
10 Amy Ruth // Feb 13, 2009 at 7:21 am

I agree with your husband, a beautiful pan made that beautifully shaped cake. I have Alice’s book you baked from and I love reading it as well. What an exciting find. (the flour). Thank you so much for your kind words on my blog. Happy Valentine’s Day
AmyRuth
11 Nancy (n.o.e.) // Feb 13, 2009 at 8:46 pm

I have recipes that I’m obsessed with, too! I can see how this could be one for you – and now I really want to try it. I’ll be on the lookout for chestnut flour…
Nancy
12 Chris // Feb 14, 2009 at 1:43 pm

This is beautiful! I don’t know if I would have bought a spiral pan like that if I saw it in the store, but you must have great instincts for that kind of stuff.

My elusive ingredient: vital wheat gluten. Really. I have not a Whole Foods anywhere near my house. It wasn’t until I traveled to Singapore that I found it!

I just found your blog, by the way, and am really excited to see what else you have in store!
13 suesse-mahlzeit // Feb 14, 2009 at 3:37 pm

it sounds and looks very delicious !
14 rowena@Rubber Slippers In Italy // Feb 17, 2009 at 10:44 am

WOW! I am so glad that you left a comment at the blog, thereby leading me here! I was just looking at chestnut flour on our last visit to the grocery store and I thought “nahhh…I don’t have enough recipes to use up all the flour before it goes stale.” — Now it’ll be the first thing I buy b/c I just have to try this cake.

The hard-to-find ingredient for me is cornstarch. It’s called maizena here and I was told that I could find it everywhere, but the person who shared that piece of info must not live in these parts. It’s the same with rye flour…can’t find it here (Lombardy) but you can find it in Trentino Alto-Adige!
15 Barbara // Feb 18, 2009 at 6:57 pm

Oh, this looks and sounds scrumptious … I love that you made healthy substitutions. Thanks for the tip about chestnut flour … I remember looking for it years ago and seeing it in the Italian pork store … I will definitely keep this recipe high on the priority list … nice work! :)
16 smallkitchenbigideas // Mar 1, 2009 at 12:39 pm

Great looking cake!

There are recipe from The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken that I have been meaning to make but they call for chestnut flour…
17 Nicole // Jan 18, 2010 at 12:10 am

what a gorgeous looking pan!

Hmm…I love eating chestnuts, but haven’t tried using chestnuts in cakes. pretty interesting I bet
18 marietta sisca // Jan 20, 2010 at 2:41 pm

where is the original recipe?
19 HappyTummy // Jan 20, 2010 at 6:14 pm

The recipe is adapted from the cookbook Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich.
20 Betty // Apr 26, 2010 at 11:36 pm

Where can I get a pan like the one shown? Please email me or leave a message.

thanks
21 Jeni // Apr 27, 2010 at 12:55 pm

Thank you for sharing your version. I’m going to try this tonight with my small bundt pans.
22 Sadhvi // Nov 24, 2011 at 1:02 pm

I will have to try this…since I am married to a chestnut roasting vendor, I do a lot with chestnuts, including just eating them straight from the pan when I am at the stand, outside of Whole Foods. I would love the original recipe. Thanks for this one too!

HappyTummy