Roasted chestnuts are a traditional snack during autumn and early winter time. They taste delicious though can be a pain to peel. With the right recipe however you can reduce that issue to a minimum.

Ingredients

• Chestnuts

Instructions

Soak the chestnuts in cold water for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees with an empty backing tray inside. In the meantime cut the chestnuts on the upper (round) side in a cross. Try to cut down on the sides as well if possible.

Once the oven reached the wanted temperature, place them on the preheated tray. It does help if the cuts are facing upwards. I usually add half a cup of water to the ovens floor directly before closing it so there is some steam inside. You can also add a fire resistant bowl filled with water inside if you prefer that. In that case maybe do so before preheating.

Let them in the oven for 20 minutes. After that time, cover them with a soaking wet kitchen towel and let them in for another 10 minutes.

Note: the towel has to be really wet. It should not dry during the 10 minutes. If you are not sure, remove the old one and place a new wet one on top.

Tips

The quality of the chestnuts does highly affect taste but also how easy you will be able to peel them.

You can eat the inner layer of the chestnuts skin. It does not affect the general taste though of course it highly affects the mouth feel due to its consistency. Not that this is something that you have to try. But if the whole batch of nuts resists all peeling attempts ans you are really hungry this might be good fact to know.