Sweet chestnuts just roasted delicious

Sweet chestnuts: Only when roasted does the aroma unfold
When the chestnuts fall from the trees, it is time for a very special delicacy. Only by roasting and cooking the contained starch is converted into sugar, and the fruits develop their typical sweetish aroma. However, the shell should be cut crosswise so that the chestnuts in the oven do not explode. A refractory bowl of water ensures that the fruits stay nicely juicy. When the peel dissolves and it smells pleasant, the chestnuts are ready. Then shell and inner skin can be removed.

Little fat, but very tasty: sweet chestnuts. Picture: A_Lein - fotolia

Chestnuts taste pure or with some butter and salt, as a side dish to game and stuffing for the turkey, but also in soups and desserts. The dried fruits are ground into sweet chestnut flour and used for bread or cake. It is gluten-free and therefore suitable for people with celiac disease. Sweet chestnuts contain more than 40 percent carbohydrates and 50 percent water, but only two percent fat. This makes them by far the lowest in fat nuts. In addition, the chestnuts can score with B vitamins, vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and magnesium.

Sweet chestnuts are the brown to reddish brown nuts of the European chestnut (Castanea sativa), which can also be found in warmer areas in Germany. Strollers in the Palatinate, on Lake Constance and in the Rhine-Main-Neckar area are most likely to find what they are looking for. But also in the rest of Germany, individual trees can be discovered in forests and parks. The fruits grow in a prickly pericarp, which opens at maturity and falls from the tree. The term chestnuts is used for particularly large-fruited varieties with high fruit quality. They are considered particularly fine and can be recognized by a heart-like shape with a triangular underside.

By the way, sweet chestnuts are not related to the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), although the fruits are very similar. The horse chestnut does give children an autumnal crafting fun, but it is not edible. Who does not want to collect chestnuts until March in the trade. At the weekly market consumers can buy with some luck domestic goods from southern Germany. The fruits should be plump and worm-free. Even a shiny shell is a sign of freshness. Heike Kreutz, bzfe