GâTEAU à LA CRèME DE MARRON
During World War II , Claudine Moos's family hid in Lyon, which was the center of the Free Zone and considered to be a slightly safer city for the Jews. One day, her father, a socialist and Resistance fighter, was distributing leaflets against the Germans at the railroad station. The French police, helped by the German SS officer Klaus Barbie, caught him and others, and they were dispatched on the last train to Auschwitz. As they were escorted away, they sang the "Marseillaise," the French national anthem, at the top of their lungs. Claudine, who was five years old at the time, has memories of their singing voices fading off into the distance. She was raised by her mother, who had also lost her father at a young age. Despite a difficult life, having lost her father and her husband, Claudine's mother's last words were "Life is good." Even in a good life, food could be a challenge. "During and after the war, food was rationed," Claudine told me in her kitchen in Annecy. "We got ration cards for the milk and eggs. Of course there was no chocolate. I remember my mother coming home with the first tablet of chocolate she could get after the war. How excited we all were!" Regardless of the shortages during the war, chestnuts still fell from trees throughout France in autumn. This rich uncooked cake would have been made from the chestnuts that were collected on the street. The recipe comes from a handwritten cookbook that Claudine's grandmother gave her when she got married in 1960\. The original recipes were measured in interesting ways, calling for a "glass of mustard" and a "nut of butter." Peeling chestnuts used to be a laborious task. Her grandmother would collect or buy them whole, score them a quarter of the way down, boil them to loosen the skin, and then peel them. For Claudine, it is so much easier these days to make this cake, because she can buy frozen or jarred chestnuts, already peeled. Best made a day in advance, this rich cake should be served in small portions, topped with dollops of whipped cream.
Yield 8 to 10 servings
Number Of Ingredients 10
Steps:
- Put the chestnuts in a saucepan with the milk and the salt, and simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes, or until soft.
- Drain the chestnuts, discarding the milk, and put them in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the sugar and the stick of butter or margarine, and purée them. Add the rum, pulsing until smooth.
- Spoon the chestnut mixture onto a long, shallow platter, forming it into a narrow loglike rectangle measuring about 3 by 10 inches. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Add the remaining teaspoon butter or margarine, the confectioners' sugar, and a teaspoon of water, and mix well. Using a spoon or fork, drizzle the chocolate glaze over the cake. Garnish with walnut halves, slice, and serve with a dollop of whipped cream, if using.
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