Autumnal Italian Chestnut Cheesecake

This week I'm staying with friends in their farmhouse innorthern Tuscany so this is most definitely the Italian edition of ElleAyJay.

Shortly after I arrived my attention was drawn to a magazine sitting on the kitchen table. It looked like the sort of magazine that is produced to celebrate a region's cuisine. My knowledge of Italian is non-existent so I was making my judgement based purely on appearances. The production values appeared high with mouth-wateringly beautiful photos of food and a stylish layout.

I was, therefore, somewhat surprised to learn that it was the seasonal magazine produced for loyalty card holders of a supermarket chain, Esselunga. Anyway, it was just packed full of delicious looking autumnal recipes and the cheesecake on the cover had certainly grabbed my attention.

Having found the recipe inside, I enlisted the help of my friends' knowledge of the Italian language alongside a healthy use of the internet to discover it was a Chestnut Cheesecake. Since my friends live on the side of a valley covered in chestnut trees I felt that it would be a bit of a crime not to attempt to make it. Also, if it turned out to taste as good as it looked, taking the recipe home could be one of the best holiday souvenirs ever.

Inspiring chestnut trees (and amazing view)

More testing of my friends' knowledge of the Italian language against my knowledge of making other cheesecakes made me feel fairly confident that I could attempt to make it. It therefore just remained to see if we could find all the necessary ingredients. We naturally headed to the aforementioned local supermarket.

So, here is my version of Autumnal Italian Chestnut Cheesecake.

Take a 20cm diameter spring form or loose bottomed cake tin and line with baking paper.

Melt 100g butter and mix in 180g finely crushed biscuits such as digestives (gluten-free or ordinary) and 75g finely chopped Marrons Glaces. Actually Marrons Glaces were the one ingredient the supermarket couldn't sell us so we improvised. Last year my friends gathered, cooked and painstakingly peeled a pile of chestnuts from their land and made chestnut liqueur. We therefore purloined all the chestnuts for this recipe from their sweet, boozy bath as a delicious substitute. Anyway, press your butter, biscuit and chestnut mixture into the base of the tin. Chill in the fridge whilst you prepare the fillings.

Firstly chop another 75g Marrons Glaces and set to one side. Next, place 10g leaf gelatine in a bowl of cold water and leave to soak for 10 minutes.

The next ingredient required literally translates as 'spoonable cheese' but in England this is cream cheese of the spreadable variety, such as Philadelphia. Take 250g of the cream cheese and beat with 240g 'creama di marroni'. This was sold in the jam section of the supermarket so I can only assume it's chestnut jam (or chestnut spread?) since the ingredients listed are chestnuts, sugar, pectin and vanilla essence.

Assuming you can't get hold of this in the UK, I suggest using the same quantity of sweetened chestnut puree and a heaped tablespoon of vanilla bean paste. Chestnut puree tends to have a pretty solid consistency so this may take quite a bit of mixing. Once fully blended, set the mixture to one side. If you've used chestnut puree you may need to make a judgement call on the consistency of this filling. If it looks too loose to hold its shape you may need to add some gelatin. In this case, soak some more gelatine (say another 5-10g) as described above.  You will eventually split this across the two fillings.

Next, take 250ml cream and gently heat 5 tablespoons of it in a small saucepan but do not let it boil. Remove from the heat. Whisk the rest of the cream with 10g caster sugar until it forms soft peaks.

Gently lift and squeeze the soaked gelatine from the cold water and dissolve in the warmed cream. If you have just used 10g of gelatine, whisk all of it into the cream and sugar mixture and quickly fold in the chestnuts you chopped earlier. If you decided your cream cheese mixture needed thickening and added more gelatine, just add half to the whipped cream mixture at this stage.

Pour the whipped cream and chopped chestnut mixture onto the chilled biscuit base and smooth to form an even layer. You will need to work fairly fast as the gelatine will begin to set as it cools, which it will do as it mixes with the cold whipped cream.

Next, add the remaining gelatine and warm cream mixture (if using) to the cream cheese and chestnut puree mixture and stir very well. Add this final mixture to the tin to form a second layer of filling. Spread this evenly over the cream layer, making the top as smooth as possible. Chill the cheesecake for at least 6 hours.

To serve, remove from the tin to a serving plate and decorate with 10 whole Marrons Glaces, one per slice.

I can confidently report that the finished product lived up to expectations and it may well be making an appearance around the festive table this Christmas!