WWII Castagnaccio (Tuscan Chestnut Cake)
Dry, dense wartime version of a traditional chestnut cake with lemon zest and no sugar
City/Region: Italy
Time Period: 1942
Food shortages in Italy began years before WWII broke out, and cookbooks that focused on food scarcity had been published as early as 1935. They included recipes for things like soup made from vegetable peels and, like this recipe’s cookbook, instructions for cleaning when soap was rationed.
Castagnaccio is a traditional Tuscan chestnut cake, and this sugarless version is, I imagine, a far cry from what it should be. The cake is very dry, then turns gummy when you chew it, and I definitely recommend having something to wash it down (though you should probably just make a non-wartime version). The flavor isn’t bad, and the lemon really comes through, but it could really use some kind of sweetener.
“Chestnut flour cake (without sugar).
What a sweet and lucky surprise to find in your pantry, still in its bag, some chestnut flour which you had completely forgotten about (an incredible thing, indeed, in these times!). Well, such a surprising and lucky circumstance happened to me, in these days, and since you must immediately take advantage of every piece of luck, I…measured 200 grams of the sweet flour; I poured it in a small bowl; I added half a tablespoon of oil, a pinch of salt and only the grated yellow part of a lemon zest; I mixed everything with as much milk as needed (I would have used water if I didn’t have milk at home); I added a whole sachet of yeast; I mixed everything well again; I poured everything in an oiled cake pan; I put the pan in the oven (not too hot); and…when I saw that the cake was swollen and baked…when I put it on the table in front of my family…insatiable gluttons…when the cake was celebrated…
“how lucky we were, mom, since you forgot about the flour” (the kids);
“today’s sweet cake is truly delicious” (the husband);
“what a pity the cake is so small” (the servant girl in her mind)
“it’s lucky that I was able to find such a good remedy for my unforgivable forgetfulness” (me, in my heart).”
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 teaspoons (7 g) active dry yeast
- 1 cup (235 ml) milk, at room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups (200 g) chestnut flour*, sifted
- Pinch of salt
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
*See notes below.
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Oil an 8 inch cake pan, I used a springform pan. If you want a little more insurance, you can line the bottom with a piece of parchment and then oil the parchment.
- Activate the yeast by mixing it with about 1/4 cup (60 ml) of the milk and setting it aside to become foamy, about 5 minutes or so.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the chestnut flour, salt, and lemon zest.
- Stir in the olive oil until mostly evenly mixed. It'll be very dry, so the goal here is just to get it started.
- When the yeast mixture is foamy, stir it into the dry ingredients. Add the rest of the milk and stir it in until you have a batter. A few lumps is okay.
- At this point, the original recipe doesn't include time for the batter to rest and the yeast to start working, but mine ended up sitting for about 20 minutes while I searched for my cake pan, so whether or not you let it sit is up to you. I'm not sure if it made much of a difference.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan, smooth the top, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until it has nicely browned.
- Let the cake cool, then slice and serve it forth.
Notes
- Italian chestnut flour - https://amzn.to/3QdlvNm
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