Our specialty: La Torta di Marroni di Marradi
When you visit Palazzo Torriani you definitely have to taste our special Torta di Marroni, literary marroni chestnuts cake. It’s a traditional recipe of Marradi and the Mugello region, therefore you find quite a few versions. In the town of Marradi we use to make it by using only the marroni chestnuts, while in Palazzuolo sul Senion they use to add some chocolate.
Our beloved Torta di Marroni has been recently featured on a famous Italian TV Show, called Ricette all’Italiana, and we received many requests to share the recipe. So here it is!
Our Torta di Marroni on the Italian TV
A couple of months ago the Mugello region, the Marroni Chestnuts and Palazzo Torriani were featured on a famous Italian TV Show called Ricette all’Italiana. The show is aired every day and tells about Italian food and products, featuring little producers and off-the-beaten-path destinations.
On the TV show filmed in Marradi we talked about the town, the history of our Palazzo and of course about the Marroni chestnuts, the focus of the show. We prepared our special Torta di Marroni because it is one of the most representative recipes of the Mugello region made with chestnuts.
The show is in Italian, but if you would like to watch it here below the links for you:
The recipe of Torta di Marroni from Marradi
The peculiarity of this recipe is that we use the whole marroni chestnut; it’s a cake typical of Autumn and Winter in the Mugello region. The Torta di Marroni is creamy, therefore it comes with a bottom of shortcrust pastry.
The ingredients for the torta di marroni
- 500 gr marroni chestnuts
- 300 gr white sugar
- 1 liter milk;
- Seeds of a vanilla bean
- 1 pinch of salt
- 4 eggs
- 20 gr Alchermes liquor
- 50 gr Rum
The ingredients for the shortcrust pastry
- 200 gr white flour
- 1 glass of milk
- 50 gr lard
- 1 pinch of salt
The ingredients should be consider to cover a baking tray that measures 35 x 25 cm.
Procedure
Roast the marroni chestnuts on the fire until you can peel them easily. Boil them with half a liter of milk and the vanilla bean until they’re soft enough to be passed through a mouli grater. When the chestnut purée is cold add the rest of the milk, the sugar, the seeds of vanilla bean, the liquors, the pinch of salt and mix everything adding at the end the eggs.
The result should be a dough pretty much liquid, therefore if you see the dough is too solid, please add more milk or more liquors, according to your taste.
Now it’s time to prepare the pasta matta, which is similar to the shortcrust pastry. The recipe aforementioned is calculated to cover a baking tray that measures 35 x 25 cm. When ready cover the baking tray with the pastry and put the chestnut dough, which should be about 4 cm.
Bake slowly at 120°C for about 3-4 hours: the result should be a solid cake with a characteristic brown color. When the cake is cold, cut it into diamond-shaped pieces.
