Chestnut crabapple mash

Do you have chestnuts and crabapples — or sour apple varieties like Granny Smith? Then you’ll want to make chestnut crabapple mash, a delicious seasonal treat that can be eaten like mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes. 

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Quick praise for crabapples and chestnuts

We love perennial garden plants, which is one reason we have a small food forest, aka forest garden. Chinese chestnuts are a prominent tree in our system. 

Our largest chestnut tree is about 10 years old and is currently dropping loads of chestnuts. Unlike most nuts, chestnuts are low in fats and proteins, but high in complex carbohydrates. To be exact, each one of our roughly 0.5 ounce Chinese chestnuts offers about 4 grams of complex carbohydrates and only a fraction of a gram of protein and fat.

This nutritional profile is why chestnuts are sometimes called “bread of the woods.” (Side note: Acorns are another “bread of the woods” we enjoy, but they take a lot more processing before eating due to their high tannin levels.)

Chestnuts have to be cooked prior to eating, and they offer a sweet starchy flavor, somewhat similar to sweet potatoes. Those features make chestnuts ideal to make into a mash, combined with other seasonal ingredients.

Since we also have a lot of crabapples on hand, we thought we’d “mash” together their tangy flavor with the sweetness of chestnuts. Thus, chestnut crabapple mash is born. And wow is it delicious! 

 

Ingredients you’ll need to make crabapple chestnut mash:

• 1 pound whole chestnuts, shells on (about 3 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups whole organic grass-fed milk
• 1/2 cup organic half-and-half or cream (or use all milk if you want to reduce fat)
• 5 ounces de-seeded and quartered *crabapples – about 1 heaping cup full (*use Granny Smith apples as a substitute for crabapples) 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 1 large sprig of fresh rosemary (you’ll remove the whole sprig after cooking, which is hard to do with dried rosemary bits)  

You’ll also need a food processor to make this recipe. 

Step-by-step instructions:

This is a very simple recipe to make, but please carefully read the instructions to get it right:

Step 1: Cut and bake chestnuts. 

Preheat your oven to 350°F (177°C). Carefully cut your chestnuts in half with a large kitchen knife, making sure not to remove any of your fingers in the process! 

Place halved chestnuts on a cookie sheet, nut-side-up and shell-side-down:

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

This step helps remove some of the moisture from the chestnuts. Once they cool, the nuts should separate from the shells and inner testa (the thin papery layer coating the nut). 

Also note that once the shells and some of the moisture are removed, you’ll have about 2 cups of chestnuts / 12 ounces. 

Step 2: De-seed and quarter your crabapples. 

While the chestnuts are baking, rinse and de-seed your crabapples as follows: 

1. cut off the calyx (brown part on bottom of fruit)
2. quarter the crabapple,
3. remove middle seed sections. 

Step 3: SLOW AND LOW – cook chestnuts with dairy to soften and moisten the nuts. 

Put chestnuts, dairy, and salt into saucepan on your stovetop. Ideally, you can size the pan so the chestnuts are in a single layer covering the entire bottom of the pan and the dairy just covers the chestnuts.

For the first 5 minutes, turn the heat to medium, keeping the lid on. Then turn the temperature to the lowest setting on your stove — continuing to keep the lid on — and cook for about 20 minutes. You may need to remove the pan from the heat from time to time if the dairy starts to bubble and get too hot. 

You do NOT want the dairy to boil (which will cause it to break) or cook off. Instead, you want to slowly cook the chestnuts and infuse them with moisture. 

Step 3: Add crabapples and rosemary, and continue cooking.

Add crabapples and rosemary to the pot and remove the lid. Continue to cook for another ~35 minutes over low heat to reduce  the water content and concentrate the flavors. Stir occasionally as you go.

Once done, remove the rosemary, then remove the pan from heat. Allow the contents to cool down until they aren’t scalding hot. 

Step 4: Puree in food processor. 

Transfer the warm ingredients to a food processor and blend until silky smooth. Scrape the sides and re-blend as necessary. 

Now is the time to make any necessary modifications so have a taste!

• Want it less thick? Add a bit more milk or cream.
• Want to thicken it up a bit more? Return to low heat on the stovetop stirring constantly until you reach the desired thickness. 
• Need more salt? Sprinkle some in and re-blend. 

There will probably still be a few small chunks of chestnut in the finished mash but if you’ve cooked them long enough in the dairy, they’ll be soft and perfectly palatable. 

Step 5: Serve warm. 

Serve warm as a side dish and enjoy! Chestnut-crabapple mash also stores and re-heats really well. It will keep in the fridge for 5-7 days.  

We hope you love chestnut crabapple mash as much as we do! Please drop us a note and rating in the comments once you’ve given it a try. 

KIGI,

More chestnut articles and recipes you’ll love!

• How to grow (organically), harvest, and use chestnuts
• How to make chestnut flour
• Cast iron pan-roasted chestnuts on a stovetop
• One-pot roasted chicken with chestnuts and crabapples (or Granny Smith apples)
• Chestnut flour cake with persimmons and buttermilk
• Chestnut spread infused with spruce needles
• Chestnut flour crepes with beautyberry whipped cream
• Chestnut breakfast porridge with pan-roasted Asian persimmons
• American persimmon pie with chestnut flour pie crust
• Chestnut and shiitake mushroom soup

Other crabapple recipes you’ll want to sink your teeth into:

• Crab apple maple syrup pie
• Crabapple hand pies
• Wild-fermented crabapple cider with beautyberries
• Maple syrup candied crabapples with oat-pecan crumble cakes