As it is chestnut season, we receive chestnuts in addition to having our own... So many chestnuts, what to do with them all?
I decided to make bread.
I'm a novice baker and my
oven sucks, it does not heat evenly at all and it's very small. Ovens are not a standard part of kitchens in Japan like they are where I grew up in the USA.
In this case we received the chestnuts boiled in the shell. So I cut them into quarters and then spooned the meat out into a food processor, processed for less than a minute and got a very slightly damp powder. It mixed well into the flour with a whisk.
The high portion of chestnut seems to have made the rise rather small compared to previous 100% flour breads. The taste was very decent, strong and nutty. It's certainly a great way to eat hordes of chestnuts if you have a glut.
I found a recipe on Yummly and adapted it a little bit.
https://www.yummly.com/recipe/Chestnut-Bread-530922
Recipe:
Ingredients
4 SERVINGS
200 grams strong flour
250 grams dried chestnuts
15 grams yeast (fresh brewer’s)
1 Tbsp. oil
1 Tbsp.
honey
two pinches of salt
50 mL and 130 mL warm water
Directions
Grind the dried chestnuts finely.
Dilute the yeast with 50 milliliters of warm water and the honey, cover and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Kneading by hand method: Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Sift the flour with the ground chestnuts in a bowl, make a well in the center.
Place the yeast in the well and sprinkle the flour with 2 pinches of salt.
Begin kneading the dough with the flours, incorporating 130 to 150 milliliters of warm water a little at a time, add the oil and continue kneading for 5 minutes.
Shape the dough into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and let it rest in a warm area until it has doubled in volume.
Punch down the dough delicately, and using your hands shape the loaves, coat the base of the rolls in flour, and place them on a wax paper-lined baking sheet.
Cover the loaves with a kitchen towel and let them rise for 50 to 60 minutes.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes.
I had lots of chestnuts.
I made them into powder.
I mixed them with bread flour.
I added salt.
I added yeast,
hot water, and honey
I mixed the things
I made a ball and added oil, then kneaded it for a long time.
I took this ball, separated it into two loaves and let it rise.
Then I baked it in the oven for about 30 minutes - since the oven heats unevenly I had to stop it just short since one loaf was starting to become overly brown.
I successfully made two loaves of bread.