My brother-in-law loves to cook as well, and he recently shared a recipe for chestnut syrup with me that makes really good homemade cream soda. Along with it came a recipe to bake the chestnuts after steeping them to make the syrup, but we didn’t care for that part. Not wanting to waste the chestnuts, I pulsed them in the food processor and threw them into a cookie! Not just for the holidays anymore, the festive nut makes a good sweet treat for any time of year.
Chestnut Doodles: Makes 10-12 Large Cookies or 36-40 Small Cookies
½ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
½ cup butter or butter substitute
1 egg (or egg replacement)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup roasted chestnuts – I found ours in the Asian aisle of our local Wegmans
Preheat oven to 350F
- Chop your chestnuts into small pieces with a knife, or pulse in a food processor until the pieces are small and even.
- In a small bowl, mix together your flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, cream together the sugars and butter products until fluffy.
- Add in your egg and vanilla and mix until homogeneous.
- Add your flour mixture and mix until combined.
- Fold in your chestnut pieces
- Using a 1 oz scoop (or a rounded tablespoon), or 2 oz scoop, scoop cookie dough into balls and place on an ungreased baking sheet 1-2” apart.
- For small cookies: bake for 8-10 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the cook time to promote even baking. For large cookies, increase the time to 15-20 minutes. The cookies should be soft and slightly golden around the edges.
- Rest the cookies for 2-5 minutes on the pan before removing and placing on a cooling rack.
Try not to eat them all at once! I love them in the morning with some tea or even just as an afternoon sugar bump!
Mack's 