Marron Glacé – Candied Chestnut Treats

Marron Glacé is a delicious candied chestnut treat from Northern Italy and France.

It’s especially popular during November and December, when chestnuts are in season. But not just regular chestnuts.

As the name implies, Marron Glace is made from marrons – a cultivated type of chestnut. Marrons are of a superior quality, have bigger in size fruit and more rich in flavor than regular chestnuts.

Marron Glace ingredients are few and very simple.

Essentially all you need is marron chestnuts, sugar, water and a vanilla pod or vanilla extract.

Chestnuts are shelled, peeled and cooked in sugar syrup. 

As a result you have sweet candied chestnut morsels with subtle notes of vanilla.

All that covered with thin sugar glaze.

Whole Marron Glaces is the best treat to enjoy all on its own.

Any small broken pieces can be used in desserts (more on that later).

I have to be honest, there’s another secret ingredient you have to arm yourself with.

And that’s patience.

It takes 4-6 days to make marron glacé.

Hope you’re not discouraged already.

Even though it takes several days to make candied chestnuts, except for initial peeling of the chestnuts, the whole process takes 5 minutes a day.

Did you know Marron Glace is considered an exclusive, very expensive treat?

They cost from $3 to $6 a piece(!).

This is where your patience pays off 🙂

Package them nicely and make a special Holiday Gift to someone you care about.

How To Make Marron Glacé Step By Step

As I mentioned, it takes at least 4 days to prepare Marron Glace.
Some recipes call for 6 days, which means chestnuts are soaked in the syrup for 6 days. I’ve tried both ways and haven’t found a big difference.
So we’ll stick with 4 days.

Day 1

Score & Peel Chestnuts

Peeling chestnuts can be tricky. Not if you know some tricks that I’m going to share with you.

If you really want to cut score chestnuts with ease a small sharp knife is key.

I have this Italian Chestnut Knife which has turned scoring chestnuts from the worst to my favorite things to do now.

Not only you can score chestnuts with this knife faster, it’s also more safe.

PLUS you can perform various cuts.

Since I have scored and peeling good 20 pounds of chestnuts this year I find the the best cut that will make chestnuts almost “peel themselves” is a difficult cut to make with a regular knife and is not safe as you can easily cut yourself. But if you have chestnut knife it’ll be an absolute bliss cutting AND peeling them. Promise.

How To Score Chestnuts With A Chestnut Knife

Stick the tip of the knife blade at the bottom of the chestnut on the side.

Slit the chestnuts all the way up through the pointed top of the chestnut down again to the bottom, making kind of a  vertical “U” cut. Go deep enough inside the chestnut with the knife blade to cut through inner skin, but not too deep to avoid cutting the chestnut itself.

How To Score Chestnuts With A Regular Knife

For safety purposes, I recommend you don’t make a vertical “U” cut but rather a long slit cut across the rounded side of a chestnut. Again trying to cut through the inner skin but not to cut too deep into the nut.

PRO TIP: If the outer shell of the nut seems to hard to cut through, let chestnuts soak in water for 1-2. Past that time the hard shell will soften just enough and you’ll be able to score chestnuts with ease.

How To Peel Raw Chestnuts

Bring a pot with water to a boil. Add 5-8 chestnuts and boil for 5 minutes.

Remove from the water and peel immediately removing both hard shell and thin inner.

I highly recommend you use gloves or pass your fingers under cold water from time to time.

The chestnuts will be very hot to handle but peeling them while still hot is the best way to make them peel easily in one go.

When chestnuts start to cool the inner skin will be very hard to remove.
If this happens you can still peel them using one extra step that I mention below.

In the meantime put to boil the next batch of chestnuts.
Boil for 5 minutes and peel.

In case you’ll have a couple of chestnuts with inner skin firmly attached, set them aside.

Once you’re done peeling all the remaining chestnuts, put back to a boil those that you were not able to peel and boil them for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from hot water and peel immediately. This is essentially the same method (blanching) that is used to remove skin from almonds.

At this point a highly recommend you weight the chestnuts.

A lot of time you would have some bad chestnuts or some that fell apart that you’ll not eventually use in the recipe.

After you weight the chestnuts you’ll know exactly how much sugar and water you’ll need to the syrup.

The ratio for chestnuts, sugar and water is 1:1:1 as you’ll see later in the recipe.

Cook Chestnuts

This next step is super important if not crucial for successful marron glace.

You have to cook peeled chestnuts to perfect point when they’re cooked but not overcooked.

Overcooked chestnuts will fall apart and will not make it to marron glace.

In a clean pot add peeled chestnuts, cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 12-14 minutes.

At 11 minute mark I usually taste one to see if it’s ready. If there’s still a little crunch to it boil for another minute or 2.

Once cooked, very carefully using a slotted spoon remove chestnuts from the boiling water.

PRO TIP: Arrange peeled chestnuts in a steam basket before transferring to a pot. Once chestnuts are cooked, all you need to do is remove steam basket from water. Chestnuts will be perfectly drained and there will be far less breakage.

Prepare Sugar Syrup

In a separate pot add water and sugar, stir well and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Carefully add cooked chestnuts or a steam basket with chestnuts. Wait till the syrup boils again, cook for 2 minute and turn off the heat.

Let chestnuts cool in sugar syrup for about 24 hours.

Day 2

Using a slotted spoon or by simple remove the steam basket remove chestnuts from the syrup. Bring it to a boil, carefully add chestnuts, wait for boil, cooked for 1 minute and turn of the heat.

Day 3

Repeat the boiling and cooling process.

Day 4

Repeat the boiling and cooling process. Once chestnuts are completely cool and the sugar syrup has become thick, one by one remove chestnuts from the syrup and place on a cooling wire rack.

PRO TIP: Line the surface under the cooling rack with parchment paper for easy cleaning.

At this point you can choose to let chestnuts dry at room temperature for 6-12 hours or preheat the oven to 150F (65C) and place chestnuts to dry for about 1-2 hours. Stick a prop to leave the door slightly open.

Extra Tips & Tricks

• The sugar syrup will become thicker each day. But make sure you don’t burn (let cook for too long) at any step of the process. Otherwise it’ll turn rock hard and crystallize when cooled.
• Use an old pot or pot that’s easy to and safe to scrub and clean for boiling chestnuts before peeling them. Don’t use ceramic coated pot or casserole. Chestnut shells will pigment the water and the pot.
• If you end up having a lot of broken chestnuts don’t worry – the broken pieces don’t look pretty but they taste equally delicious.
• If you have a pressure cooker, steam peeled chestnuts in a pressure cooker instead of boiling them. I find steamed chestnuts tend to break less.
• Facilitate scoring chestnuts by placing them in a bowl of water and let soak for 30 minutes before scoring.
• At the final step, before placing chestnuts to dry in the oven you can cover them with extra sugar glaze. Simply mix leftover sugar syrup with confectioners sugar until you get a runny paste. Deep each chestnuts in the glaze and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Dry in the oven as directed in the recipe.
• Don’t throw away leftover sugar syrup. Instead, use it to sweeten drinks, use as a sauce for pancakes, crepes, ice-cream and even as a glaze for a bundt cake.

If you love chestnuts you’ll enjoy other ways you can cook them:
Boiled Chestnuts – make butter-y chestnuts that you can flavor with orange zest, rosemary or bay leaves and use them in the recipes.
Roasted Chestnuts – learn my trick to roast chestnuts in the oven them turn out super soft and peel of in snap!

Full Recipe

4.50 from 2 votes

Marron Glacé – Candied Chestnut Treats

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Marron Glacé are delicious candied chestnuts treats from Northern Italy and France.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French, Italian

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 lb chestnuts peeled or 2 lb chestnuts with shells
• ▢ 1 lb sugar
• ▢ 2 cups water
• ▢ 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Day 1: Score & Peel Chestnuts

• How to Score Chestnuts With A Chestnut Knife

  Stick the tip of the knife blade at the bottom of the chestnut on the side. Slit the chestnuts all the way up through the pointed top of the chestnut down again to the bottom, making kind of a vertical “U” cut. Go deep enough inside the chestnut with the knife blade to cut through inner skin, but not too deep to avoid cutting the chestnut itself.
• How to Score Chestnuts With A Regular Knife

  For safety purposes, I recommend you don’t make a vertical “U” cut but rather a long slit cut across the rounded side of a chestnut. Again trying to cut through the inner skin but not to cut too deep into the nut.

  TIP: If the outer shell of the nut seems to hard to cut through, let chestnuts soak in water for 1-2. Past that time the hard shell will soften just enough and you’ll be able to score chestnuts with ease.

Peel Chestnuts

• Bring a pot with water to a boil. Add 5-8 chestnuts and boil for 5 minutes.
• Remove from the water and peel immediately removing both hard shell and thin inner.

  The chestnuts will be very hot to handle but peeling them while still hot is the best way to make them peel easily in one go. When chestnuts start to cool the inner skin will be very hard to remove.

  If this happens you can still peel them using one extra step that I mention below.
• In the meantime put to boil the next batch of chestnuts.

  Boil for 5 minutes and peel.
• In case you’ll have a couple of chestnuts with inner skin firmly attached, set them aside.

  Once you’re done peeling all the remaining chestnuts, put back to a boil those that you were not able to peel and boil them for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from hot water and peel immediately. This is essentially the same method (blanching) that is used to remove skin from almonds.

  At this point a highly recommend you weight the chestnuts.

  A lot of time you would have some bad chestnuts or some that fell apart that you’ll not eventually use in the recipe.
• After you weight the chestnuts you’ll know exactly how much sugar and water you’ll need to the syrup.

  The ratio for chestnuts, sugar and water is 1:1:1 as you’ll see later in the recipe.

Cook Chestnuts

• In a clean pot add peeled chestnuts, cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 12-14 minutes.

  At 11 minute mark I usually taste one to see if it’s ready. If there’s still a little crunch to it boil for another minute or 2.
• Once chestnuts are cooked, very carefully, using a slotted spoon remove chestnuts from the boiling water.

  PRO TIP: Arrange peeled chestnuts in a steam basket before transferring to a pot. Once chestnuts are cooked, all you need to do is remove steam basket from water. Chestnuts will be perfectly drained and there will be far less breakage.

Prepare Sugar Syrup

• In a separate pot add water and sugar, stir well and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.
• Carefully add cooked chestnuts or a steam basket with chestnuts. Wait till the syrup boils again, cook for 2 minute and turn off the heat.
• Let chestnuts cool in sugar syrup for about 24 hours.

Day 2

• Using a slotted spoon or by simple remove the steam basket remove chestnuts from the syrup. Bring it to a boil, carefully add chestnuts, wait for boil, cooked for 1 minute and turn of the heat.

Day 3: Repeat the boiling and cooling process.

Day 4

• Repeat the boiling and cooling process. Once chestnuts are completely cool and the sugar syrup has become thick, one by one remove chestnuts from the syrup and place on a cooling wire rack.

  TIP: Line the surface under the cooling rack with parchment paper for easy cleaning.
• At this point you can choose to let chestnuts dry at room temperature for 6-12 hours or preheat the oven to 150F (65C) and place chestnuts to dry for about 1-2 hours. Stick a prop to leave the door slightly open.

Notes

• The sugar syrup will become thicker each day. But make sure you don’t burn (let cook for too long) at any step of the process. Otherwise it’ll turn rock hard and crystallize when cooled.
• Use an old pot or pot that’s easy to and safe to scrub and clean for boilng chestnuts before peeling them. Don’t use ceramic coated pot or casserole. Chestnut shells will pigment the water and the pot.
• If you end up having a lot of broken chestnuts don’t worry – the broken pieces don’t look pretty but they taste equally delicious.
• If you have a pressure cooker, steam peeled chestnuts in a pressure cooker instead of boiling them. I find steamed chestnuts tend to break less.
• Facilitate scoring chestnuts by placing them in a bowl of water and let soak for 30 minutes before scoring.
• At the final step, before placing chestnuts to dry in the oven you can cover them with extra sugar glaze. Simply mix leftover sugar syrup with confectioners sugar until you get a runny paste. Deep each chestnuts in the glaze and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Dry in the oven as directed in the recipe.
• Don’y throw away leftover sugar syrup. Instead, use it to sweeten drinks, use as a sauce for pancakes, crepes, ice-cream and even as a glaze for a bundt cake.

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