Ingredients

145g chestnut flour

24g sugar

2 1/2 tbsp olive oil

230ml water

1 heaped tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

30g dried sweetened cranberries

25g pine kernels

Method

1. Preheat your fan oven to 180*C.
2. Sieve the chestnut flour into a basin, add the sugar and the olive oil, and then slowly add most of the water whilst beating with an electric whisk to make a batter.
3. Add the finely chopped rosemary, the cranberries and the pine kernels and beat well to soften the cranberries. Add the remaining water and let the batter stand whilst you butter 2 x 9-hole silicone madeleine moulds. The silicone moulds with re-inforced wire edges are easiest to handle.
4. Pour the batter carefully into the moulds, nudging it right to the edges and level with the top of the holes, and bake at 170*C for 30 - 35 minutes.

Castagnaccio recipes produce a flat, moist cake that doesn't rise and has an unusual texture, a strong flavour of either rosemary or fennel seeds, and is good served with a little dish of ricotta and honey, or a hard sheep's cheese like Manchego, and a few seasonal berries.It can be an acquired taste - particularly if you're used to traditional French madeleines which often use egg white as a raising agent and icing sugar to sweeten, making a very light, sweet mouthful.This version is chewier, with only a little sugar so that the taste of the chestnut flour comes through.This not only makes it a healthier chestnut treat as it has (including the sweetened cranberries) 30% sugar to flour rather than equal quantities, but chestnuts are also high in protein.

145gchestnut flour

24gsugar

2 1/2tbspolive oil

230mlwater

1 heaped tbspchopped fresh rosemary

30g dried sweetened cranberries

25g pine kernels

1.Preheat your fan oven to 180*C.

2.Sieve the chestnut flour into a basin, add the sugar and the olive oil, and then slowly add most of the water whilst beating with an electric whisk to make a batter.

3.Add the finely chopped rosemary, the cranberries and the pine kernels and beat well to soften the cranberries. Add the remaining water and let the batter stand whilst you butter 2 x 9-hole silicone madeleine moulds.The silicone moulds with re-inforced wire edges are easiest to handle.

Pour the batter carefully into the moulds, nudging it right to the edges and level with the top of the holes, and bake at 170*C for 30 - 35 minutes.