Chestnuts are a distant relative of the horse chestnut (conkers), but conkers are inedible and poisonous! Apparently 1 in 10 chestnuts are bad inside, we have checked them as much as possible but there will be some that it isn't obvious until cooked.

What do I do with them?

One easy method for roasting is to cut a little cross in the top of each nut and heat in a shallow container, tossing occasionally, at 200-220 °C for 10-15 minutes. The nuts must be cut as they tend to explode when roasted!

After much trial and error, I found that if you heat them for a bit, remove from the heat to cool for a couple of minutes, then put back on the heat, they cook right through the centre and remain tender. A slight blackening of the outside is fine. To peel them easily, blanch then in boiling water for a few minutes (after putting little crosses on them), then when warm you can peel them.

To boil them, cook for about 10 minutes in boiling water, peel th
Chestnut and Chocolate Pudding

225g/8oz self-raising flour
100g/3½oz dark chocolate
180g/6oz cooked, peeled chestnuts
30g/1oz cocoa
225g/8oz butter
225g/8oz caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
½ tsp vanilla essence
Method
1. Roughly chop the chestnuts.
2. Gently melt the butter with the dark chocolate. Stir in the flour, chestnuts, cocoa, sugar, eggs and vanilla essence.
3. Turn into a lightly greased 1.2L/2pt pudding basin. Cover with a circle of baking parchment and foil. Secure the top with string and make a string handle from one side of the basin to another (so you can lift it out)
4. Steam* for 2½ hours. Insert a skewer into the pudding to make sure it is cooked. Turn out of the dish and serve with cream or vanilla ice cream.
*to steam, place in a large saucepan with water in it, keep the pudding of the bottom, keep checking and topping up the water.