It's name derives from chestnut (castagna). Castagnaccio it's teorically a "pejorative" of the word…bc it's a simple recipe, for poor people. But it's absolutely amazing and, to us tuscans, it honestly feels like the sum of autumn, like pumkin spice -flavoured stuff for americans.
Today it's not so cheap of a recipe: chestnut's flour and pine nuts are quite expensive, but it's all there is and super easy to make.
Premise: if you buy it, ask if it's been made with regular milk or with water or plant-based milk. But milk is the only animal derived product in this recipe.
Ingredients:
– chestnut flour
-water and plant based milk (soy milk)
-pinch of sugar
-olive oil
-nuts, pine nuts, rosemary, and raisins
Proportions: go batshit crazy with it. The batter just has to be very smooth and liquid. And the cake has to be tall about 1cm inside the cake mold.
I usually make: 1 ½ cups of flour + water and milk (prevalently milk) until it's smooth and liquid.
Then add a pinch of sugar, crumbled nuts, and raisins (that need to be immersed for a while in warm water before hand to make them return plump – but that's just common sense).
Pour in the oiled up cake mold. Rember it has to be about 1cm tall inside the mold.
Add pine nuts, nuts, raisins and rosmary on top.
30 minutes in the oven, temperature of about: 160° (but it depends on how big is your oven. Bigger oven, higher temperature. Just stick to the temperature you use to bake your usual apple pie or whatever.)
Oil up when it's done and enjoy.
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If you buy it instsad, just ask if it's been made with regular milk, soy milk (rare) or water.
by Living_Poem3004
Dining and Cooking