I love chestnuts, so I was delighted to discover this bag of imported chestnut flour at a local Italian deli.
Inspired by a recent post of Jezza’s at Stir the Pots, I decided to try incorporating a little chestnut flour into a batch of sourdough loaves. Here’s a photo of my bubbly wet starter – I keep it very liquid (166% hydration) and feed it at a ratio of one cup of water to one cup of bakers’ flour.
My recipe called for 700g flour, so I made this dough with 500g bakers flour and 200g chestnut flour. The resultant dough was the most surprising colour – taupe with a tinge of purple might be the best description.
For those who are interested, here’s the complete formula:
- 200g active sourdough starter (166% hydration)
- 400g water
- 50g olive oil
- 500g bakers flour
- 200g chestnut flour
- 10g fine sea salt
The bread has a subtle chestnutty sweetness which makes it a great foil for cured meats. It’s sublime in a bacon and egg sandwich, and absolutely perfect with peanut butter. As the chestnut flour is quite expensive, it’s good to know that even a small amount will make such a difference to the finished loaf!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 