Chestnut Flour and Chestnut Drop Scones

Latin name: Castanea

Also known as: various depending on species

I learned how to make chestnut flour from a Scottish hippy named Huskie in Avebury stone circle many years ago. It takes quite a bit of time and effort, both in gathering sufficient chestnuts and in grinding them, but is well worth the time since it's naturally very sweet and as such is very suited to cakes. It is, however, quite a heavy flour which means your cakes will be better if you mix it half and half with normal flour; though it's ideal for denser sweet doughs such as drop scones.

There are around nine different species, with different ones being common in different countries - here in the UK, the Sweet Chestnut (C. sativa) grows wild and is quite a common tree in deciduous woodlands, parks and larger gardens where it may have been planted for ornamental purposes - mature specimens can be very imposing trees indeed.

Collect the nuts during late September and early October, removing the shells as you do to save time later. Store them in a warm room or cupboard for around a month to a month and a half until they have dried - the time this takes will depend on the warmth and humidity of the storage area.

Sweet Chestnut.
Image: Wilfried Wittkowsky, used under GNU Free Documentation Licence.

Once they've dried, remove the brown inner shell and grind as finely as you can - this tends to depend on patience rather than skill, as it's a long and rather boring process. The resulting flour is yellow in colour and retains a delicious nutty flavour which makes for an interesting cake.

Basic Chestnut Drop Scones

Ingredients

200g Chestnut flour
25g margarine or 1 egg
250ml soya milk (you can use water, but milk is better)
pinch of salt
Optional - fruit such as chopped apple, elderberries, blackberries, blueberries, sultanas etc.

Mix the flour and salt add the fruit if you're using it), rub in the margarine and mix in the milk. When you have achieved a creamy consistency, the mixture is ready.

If you are using a conventional oven, grease a large frying pan and pre-heat it. I have always cooked drop scones over a fire, in which case I use a flat stone (making sure it's not one of thse types of stone liable to explode when heated) placed over the flames and allowed to heat up.

Take palm-sized lumps of the mixture and simply drop them onto the heated surface - after three minutes or so, bubbles will appear on the surface. Use a knife to turn them over and cook for a further two to three minutes, after which they can be removed and allowed to cool. They're delicious with honey or jam!

(Recipe and info submitted by Hedge Chef)