How to roast sweet chestnuts
Embrace the season with this guide to roasting foraged sweet chestnuts.
Ingredients
- Fresh, foraged sweet chestnuts
Steps
- Rinse the chestnuts in water and discard any that feel soft.
- Carefully cut an 'x' on the domed side of each chestnut. This is a crucial step to ensure steam can escape when cooking and the chestnuts don't explode in the oven.
- Soak the chestnuts in a bowl of water for one hour.
- Roast at 200 degrees ℃ (fan) for around 25 minutes. Start checking at 20 minutes. The outer skin should be peeling back.
- Carefully tip the chestnuts into a clean tea towel. Fold up the edges and leave to steam for ten minutes.
- Crunch the chestnuts together in the folded up tea towel to start breaking the shells/skin.
- Peel the chestnut skin/shell away from the inner while still warm. Take care with your hands as the chestnuts may still be quite hot. You may need a knife to help peel some of the chestnuts.