SWEET CHESTNUT FLOUR RECIPE | How to Make Chestnut Flour

Sweet Chestnuts in their cases on the ground

How to Make Sweet Chestnut Flour from Foraged Chestnuts

Autumn is a fantastic time to forage for sweet chestnuts. As the nuts ripen, they fall from the trees and can be collected from the woodland floor, providing a delicious seasonal ingredient that can be used in both sweet and savoury cooking.

One of our favourite things to make is homemade sweet chestnut flour. Chestnut flour is gluten free, naturally sweet and delicious! A food dehydrator helps to speed up the process.

It can be used in baking, biscuits, cakes, pancakes and other recipes, or combined with other flours to add a distinctive nutty autumnal flavour.

Making your own does take a little time, particularly when it comes to peeling and drying the chestnuts, but the result is well worth the effort.

Here's how we do it.

First, make sure you've found a sweet chestnut

Before you start collecting, it's important to correctly identify the tree and nuts.

Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) should not be confused with poisonous horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), which produces the familiar 'conkers'.

Although both have spiky outer cases, they are very different trees and their fruits should not be confused.

Sweet chestnuts grow inside cases covered with many fine, closely packed needle-like spines, while horse chestnut cases have fewer, shorter spikes. The leaves are also very different.

As with any wild food, never eat anything you haven't confidently identified.

If you're new to identifying trees, learning to recognise the tree as well as the nut is an important part of responsible foraging.

Choose healthy-looking nuts and avoid those that are mouldy, damaged or showing signs of insect infestation.

You don't need to strip every nut from an area. Leave plenty behind for wildlife and other people, and always check that collecting is permitted where you are.

If you're interested in discovering more seasonal wild foods, our guide to 10 things to forage in Hertfordshire this autumn includes sweet chestnuts alongside other autumn fruits, berries, plants and fungi.

INGERDIENTS

• Sweet Chestnuts! That's it.

You'll need as many good-quality sweet chestnuts as you're prepared to peel.

The final quantity of flour will depend on how much moisture is removed during drying.

METHOD

We have found through trial and error over the years that fresh chestnuts are often easier to peel before boiling or roasting.

One method is to carefully cut off the flatter "bottom" of the chestnut and then peel the shell back towards the top, removing the outer shell and as much of the inner husk as possible in one piece.

• The gathered sweet chestnuts need to be slitted or crossed carefully with a knife, boiled for approx 20 mins to loosen the skins, ready to peel away the shells.

• At this point, it is definitely worth putting a few of your peeled whole chestnuts into the freezer ready to add to any meals if you wish!

• Once peeled, chop the chestnuts into small pieces. A food processor makes this much quicker and produces relatively small, even pieces that will dry more efficiently.

• Lay the  chestnut pieces on baking parchment to dry for about 6 hours in the oven on a low heat or in a food dehydrator.

• After drying, grind the chestnut pieces in a coffee grinder or similar device to obtain a flour.

• You can grind the flour to your desired consistency. Sometimes we need it to be fine, other times, eg for Sweet Chestnut biscuits it's nice to have more of a crunchy, nutty texture,

Sometimes the nuts can still be quite sticky and damp at the grinding stage. If this happens, more drying is required! So either pop the chopped nuts, or a ground flour back into the oven/ dehydrator for further drying.

STORAGE

• Because homemade chestnut flour contains natural oils and may retain some moisture, it needs to be stored carefully.

• Chestnut flour has to be kept in the fridge in an air tight container and will keep for up to 3 months, or in the freezer for 6 months.

• Always check the flour before using it and discard it if it develops an unusual smell, appearance or any signs of mould.

Home made sweet chestnut flour

Learn to identify wild foods in Hertfordshire

Making your own chestnut flour starts with being able to identify a sweet chestnut tree correctly.

But once you start looking closely, you'll find that autumn offers an incredible variety of wild foods.

Our Wild Food & Forage Day in Hertfordshire is designed to help you develop those identification skills in the woodland.

Led by qualified ethnobotanist and Chief Instructor Graham Couling, the course explores seasonal edible plants, trees and fungi in our private ancient woodland near Bayford.

They run during the spring and autumn seasons so you'll learn to identify a wide range of wild foods, recognise poisonous lookalikes and discover how different plants and trees can be used for food, bushcraft and traditional purposes.

Our autumn foraging days specifically include sweet chestnut, elderberry, rosehips and edible and toxic fungi, among many other seasonal species. You'll also learn about:

• Wild food identification

• Edible and poisonous plants

• Fungi identification

• Seasonal harvesting

• Foraging law and ethics

• Food preparation and preservation

• Traditional uses of plants and trees

• Bushcraft uses including tinder and cordage

Find out more about our Wild Food & Forage Days