Chestnut Flour
It is a very versatile ingredient that can be useful for the preparation of both sweet and savory recipes. Chestnut flour, also known as sweet flour, consists mainly of chestnuts that are dried in wood and then finely ground with a stone mill.
The traditional drying on the fire gives the chestnut a particularly sweet taste and smell that makes chestnut flour unique in its kind.
Stone-ground flours are the only truly integral ones. This type of grinding is slower and heats the flour less while keeping the vitamin content intact.
Beyond some traditional recipes, this flour is used rather rarely in cooking nowadays, while in the past it was a very important source of livelihood for many peoples, especially for the inhabitants of particularly hostile mountain regions.
This flour was in fact also known by the term "bread of the poor".
With a hazelnut color and a very sweet taste, chestnut flour is rich in protein, fiber and vitamin and is useful for intestinal bacterial flora and against cholesterol. The vitamins present are C, PP as well as B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B6).
Dried chestnuts, or the seeds of chestnut, from which the flour is derived, are rich in carbohydrates and mineral salts such as potassium, iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium, phosphorus and chlorine.
Chestnut flour can be used as a thickener for stews, soups and sauces. In Corsica, as well as in some regions of Italy, chestnut flour is fried to prepare donuts and / or pancakes.
Thanks to its nutritional properties, chestnuts can be introduced into the nutrition of the sportsman.
Always speaking of nutritional properties, chestnuts are rich in starches and have a high glycemic index. For this reason, chestnuts are contraindicated to those suffering from diabetes.