About a week ago, I came across a bag of chestnut flour stocked on the bottom shelf in my grocer’s baking aisle. That’s not entirely true, I suppose. I’ve seen it laying there week after week. But, this is the first time I actually did something about it. I have used chestnut flour before to make a fudge-like chestnut tart popular in northern Italy. That was probably two years ago. What inspired me to actually pick up that back of flour and place in my shopping cart this time was a desire to add an extra pinch of protein and flavour to breakfast. Eggs are fabulous, but even I can get a little tired of them day in day out.

So, what to do with chestnut flour now that I’ve committed to buying? As the title of this blog clearly suggests, I made crêpes with it. Because chestnut flour has some natural sweetness to it, it goes best with some sweet fillings. Sweet ricotta would be very yummy, for instance. I had a hankering for fresh peaches. So, I sliced them and laid them in one small section of the crêpe, drizzled a little honey over top and folded up the crêpe. On top of that went a little more honey and a sprinkling of icing sugar.Mmm, it was so delicious.

The crêpe batter was a bit challenging. I first tried Martha Stewart’s recipe because the fact that it listed only three or four ingredients appealed to me. I really wanted that sweet chestnut flavour to come through. There was, however, a problem that manifested itself almost immediately upon cooking the crêpe batter. Chestnut flour has a nasty tendency to stick thoroughly to the pan. My Green Pan (though not yet even a year old) has completely lost its non-stick properties. (That’s another story.) Yes, I could have heated up my cast iron skillet, but I didn’t want to wait for that. Instead, to my batter recipe, I added one cup of regular white flour. That little trick solved my sticky problem. It did lessen the chestnut flavour a bit, but not too much.

Here’s the recipe I cobbled together:

Chestnut Crêpes

2 eggs

2 Tb sugar (optional)

2 Tb olive oil (melted butter would work nicely, too)

1-1/2 cups chestnut flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1-1/4 cups almond milk (or your own milk preference)

• Whisk eggs, sugar and oil until well combined. Add chestnut and all-purpose flour. Whisk in enough milk to make a thin batter. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
• Heat a non-stick crêpe pan or frying pan. Melt a little butter onto the non-stick surface. Ladle 1/4 to 1/2 cup batter onto the frying pan. Swirl the batter around the pan. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, then flip the crêpe over. Eat as is, or fill with anything that takes your fancy.