Kenwood Christmas Menu - Chocolate Chestnut Squares
I'm one lucky blogger. Kenwood kindly chose Jam and Clotted Cream to take part in their Christmas Menu Blogger campaign. This meant I got sent a very big early Christmas present - a brand spanking new Kenwood Chef Titanium. A big thank-you to Kenwood.
Over the coming four weeks I, along with Karen at Lavender and Lovage, Sian at Fishfingers for Tea, Becs at Lay The Table and Eliza at The Recipe Blog will be creating festive recipes using the Kenwood Chef under the following themes:
Week 1 - Getting Ready (favourite recipes for delicious wintry treats in the run up to Christmas).
Week 2 - Preparing the Pud (recipe for an extra special Christmas dessert)
Week 3 - All the Trimmings (recipes for accompaniments to the big Christmas feast)
Week 4 - The Main Event (I'm planning a vegetarian centrepiece)
This weeks recipe is a festive chocolately square using chestnuts and dried cranberries to give an extra special Chrismassy spin. The bonus with these squares is that they can be frozen so make batch now, freeze then just pull out of the freezer the day before you want to eat them. They are brownie like in texture with just the right amount of gooeyness. If you fancied you could add other types of fruit and nut - pecans, walnuts, raisins. Be as creative as you want.
Chocolate Chestnut Squares
Cake
Baking
Yield: 16
Chocolate Chestnut Squares
A moist chocolate cake with chestnuts
prep time: 10 minscook time: 20 minstotal time: 30 mins
ingredients:
- 140g Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa)
- 115g Butter
- 225g Caster Sugar
- 170g Plain Flour
- 1/2 TSP Baking Powder
- 200g Chestnut Puree
- 3 Eggs, beaten
- 50g Dried Cranberries
instructions
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 170°c and line a 20cm square tin with baking paper.
Step 2: Melt the butter, chocolate and sugar in a pan on a low heat. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Step 3: In the bowl of your mixer sift in the flour and baking powder. Add all the other ingredients then mix on a low speed for a few minutes until everything combined.
Step 4: Pour the cake batter into the tin and bake for 20 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin before cutting into squares. Dust with icing sugar.
Wow how lucky are you! Those chestnut chocolate squares look fabulous. i love the sweet earthy flavour of chestnuts.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what your veggie main course is.
tytamo 15What a FABULOUS recipe Beth, I adore chocolate and chestnut together as a flavour combination and I bet those will fly off the table at Christmas time! I love my Kenwood already, it really does make mixing and chopping so easy, and it's so quiet too! Karen
ReplyDeleteWow these sound amazing! My Dad LOVES chestnuts in all their forms and putting chestnut in puree sounds delicious! Can I add these to my own Christmas Cooking linky over at my blog? I'm sure my readers would love to see them :)
ReplyDeleteEmma
Of course you can EmmyW!
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of these Beth. I'd never really made anything with chestnut until last Christmas but fell in love with it, I've bookmarked these!
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of these squares - I adore Chestnuts at Christmas. Takes me back to my childhood when my grandfather would roast them and we´d eat them raw and make puree :)
ReplyDelete1/2 TSP Baking Powder:
ReplyDeleteIs this 1/2 teaspoon or tablespoon?
TSP=teaspoon TBSP=tablespoon
ReplyDeleteOne of the best cakes I ever ate was chocolate and chestnut (at the Hotel Sacher, in Salzburg) so I am determined that this year I will bake with chestnuts! Your cake looks amazing
ReplyDeleteIs it sweetened chestnut puree or unsweetened? I've seen both kinds available.
ReplyDeleteI used unsweetened
ReplyDeleteChestnut flour instead of plain would make these even better - and coeliac friendly :)
ReplyDelete