This persimmon and marrons glacés tart has a nice story, which I will tell you. It is an autumn dessert with chestnut flour, and it was born to please my husband, who loves persimmons and indeed, chestnuts. I on the other hand, dislike both. I don’t like the taste of chestnuts, and persimmons, soft and slimy as they are, literally give me the chills. But love — as we know — is a powerful force, so I tried the same to work with these ingredients and create a good cake. I combined a shortcrust pastry made with chestnut flour and white flour with a filling of pureed persimmons and broken marrons glacés. That’s how the persimmon and marrons glacés tart was born, and it seems to be very good. With this chestnut flour dessert, I also won a cake contest (I was rewarded with a hermetic cake pan), and I came close to winning a contest on Donna Moderna, but I was narrowly beaten by the paccheri of a certain Mr. Pino, who surpassed me at the last moment. These are satisfactions, so I recommend persimmon and chestnut lovers try my cake: perhaps they will also win a contest.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients for the Persimmon and Chestnut Tart
- 3.5 oz chestnut flour
- 7.1 oz all-purpose flour
- 5.3 oz sugar
- 3.5 oz butter (cold, in small pieces)
- Half packet baking powder
- 2 eggs (whole)
- 14.1 oz persimmons (already cleaned)
- 3.5 oz marrons glacés (broken)
Tools
It would be good to use a 9.5-inch springform pan.
How to Prepare the Persimmon and Marrons Glacés Tart
To prepare the shortcrust pastry, I use the food processor: it’s quick and doesn’t make a mess. If you want to knead in a bowl, however, the procedure is identical.
We start by mixing chestnut flour and wheat flour, add the baking powder, sugar, and butter in pieces. Knead quickly, then add the eggs, one at a time. The dough is ready: let’s divide it in half. If it is too soft, let it rest in the refrigerator for thirty minutes. But if we used the processor, we can probably roll out the base of the cake immediately and leave in the fridge only the dough that will serve for the lid.
Roll out the shortcrust pastry with flour and rolling pin, forming a disc of the right size (do this between two sheets of parchment paper and it will be easier). Use it to line the cake tin and fill the cake with the pulp of two persimmons peeled and mashed with hands, without adding sugar. Sprinkle the persimmons with the crumbled marrons glacés and mix gently with fingertips. Then proceed to roll out the second disc of shortcrust pastry (it will be colder because it was in the fridge for a few minutes). Make it a little bigger than necessary and place it gently to close the filling. If we have done things well, both discs of dough will protrude beyond the edge of the pan. Press with the rolling pin on the edge, and the dough will cut and seal in one pass.
Bake in a static oven for 35 to 40 minutes, at 356°F.
Considerations of a Cook in Love
This cake is very dear to me. Along with the persimmons, it symbolically encloses 40 years of love. A long marriage stays healthy even with small gestures like this. The original recipe, still with chestnut shortcrust pastry, had a filling of pears and chocolate: that must be good too.
You can find the story of this recipe on my other blog, where I also gather life stories related to food culture and territory.
The story of this cake is one of my favorites, it can be read in a few minutes;
For a Good Marriage, You Also Need a Cake
What is Silvia Tavella’s other blog called? And why does she write two?
I write two blogs because they are two completely different things and because one completes the other. This is a recipe book: I love recipes that remain my passion and that are for me a source of inspiration.
Precisely because of them I started writing short stories and dealing with food culture, since our identity is closely tied to the territory where we were born and live and to the gestures of care that cooking brings to the table. In my new blog, you will find all this without annoying advertisements, it is also called La Regina del focolare, and you can find it here:
https://www.lareginadelfocolare.it
What can I substitute for persimmons?
You can substitute with pears and marrons glacés or chopped dark chocolate
