Marron Glacé is a delicious candied chestnut treat typical to Northern Italy and France. It’s especially popular during November and December, when chestnuts are in season.
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.
Chestnuts are shelled, peeled, cooked in sugar syrup and covered with a thin layer of glaze. As a result you have sweet candied chestnut morsels with subtle notes of vanilla.
Whole Marron Glaces is the best treat to enjoy all on its own. Any small broken pieces can be used in desserts.
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.
Table Of Contents
Ingredients & Essential Tools
- Ingredients:
- Marron chestnuts or high quality quality large sweet chestnuts
- sugar, equal by weight to the weight of peeled chestnuts
- water, equal by weight to the weight of peeled chestnuts
- vanilla pod or vanilla extract
- Tools:
- Italian Chestnut Knife for scoring (the best result) or small sharp pairing knife
- a pot, large enough to fit all chestnuts (preferably in a single layer)
- tulle, gauze, nylon or any other fabric with loose open weave (for wrapping chestnuts before candying). This is a crucial step to prevent massive breakage of marron glace.
- kitchen scale - you'll need to measure sugar and water based on the weight of peeled chestnuts.
- rubber gloves - optional but highly recommended when peeling chestnuts. The chestnuts will be very hot to handle but peeling them white still burning hot is the key to removing both inner and outer shells with ease. Plus, rubber gloves with prevent discoloration of your skin.
- Secret Ingredient: And that’s patience. It takes 4-6 days to make marron glacé. But don't be discouraged. 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.
How To Make Marron Glacé Step By Step
After years of making Marron Glacé and having a moderate percentage of chestnut breakage, I've adopted a technique used in commercial production of Marron Glace. This reduced chestnut breakage to minimal or none at all! Hence the recipe was updated in December, 2024 to reflect the new technique that I highly recommend.
Day 1
Here's what you'll need to do the first day:
- Score chestnuts (using a chestnuts knife or a small pairing knife) and soak for 30-60 minutes (this helps peeling chestnuts easier).
- Parboil chestnuts with shell on.
- Steam and peel.
- Wrap in gauze or tulle.
- Cook in syrup.
How To Score Chestnuts With A Chestnut Knife
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 makes scoring safer. Plus you can perform various cuts.
Since I have scored and peeled 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.
- 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 PAY ATTENTION not to go too deep to avoid cutting the chestnut pulp. It takes practice but eventually you'll get a hang of it.
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. Try to cut through the inner skin but avoid cutting the chestnut pulp.
EXTRA TIP: If the outer shell of the nut seems too 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.
- Soak scored chestnuts in a bowl filled with warm water for 30-60 minutes.
- Bring a pot with water to a boil. Add 5-8 chestnuts, once water comes to a boil again boil for 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a bowl lines with kitchen towel and cover to help chestnuts steam. You'll notice how they'll start to open even more. Start peeling chestnuts immediately removing both hard shell and thin inner skin. Make sure to keep the rest of the chestnuts covered with a kitchen towel.
- While peeling the first batch of chestnuts, wait for the water to come a boil again and parboil the second batch of chestnuts. for 5 minutes.
- Repeat the process with the remaining chestnuts.
Inner skin won't peel? Do this.
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. Set aside all chestnuts with some or all inner skin firmly attached.
Once you’re done parboiling and peeling all the 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.
- Weight peeled chestnuts making sure to discard any bad ones. You can still use broken pieces for candying, they're perfect for tasting. The weight of the chestnuts is how much sugar and water you'll need by weight.
- The ratio for chestnuts, sugar and water is 1:1:1.
- Cut gauze, tulle or cheesecloth into large squares.
- Put two chestnuts together with their flat sides touching and wrap them tightly into a little bundle. Make sure to make a double knot so they won't fall apart during various stages of candying.
- Select a pot that will fit all chestnuts, preferably in a single layer. Mix sugar, water and vanilla extra or vanilla pod (slit in half and seeds scraped out), bring to a boil.
- Once syrup comes to a boil arrange chestnut bundles in the pot. Make sure they're covered with syrup. If not, prepare a little more sugar syrup in a separate pot (always 1:1 sugar and water ratio) and add to the pot with chestnuts.
- Bring syrup with chestnuts to a boil and once boiling cook for 14-15 minutes with a lid slightly open. Turn the heat off, leave the lid half open and let chestnuts cool in syrup until the next day.
Day 2
Using a pair of thongs remove chestnuts from the syrup. Bring it to a boil, place back chestnut bundles, wait for a boil, cooked for 1 minute and turn of the heat. Let cool until the next day.
Day 3
Repeat the boiling and cooling process.
Day 4
Repeat the boiling and cooling process.
Day 5
- Repeat the boiling and cooling process for the last time. Once chestnuts are completely cool, drain chestnuts still wrapped in gauze using a colander. Maker sure to save all the syrup.
- Carefully cut off the knots and remove chestnuts from gauze.
- Place candied chestnuts on a cooling rack with parchment paper placed underneath for easy cleaning.
Glazing (3 Ways)
- Syrup Glaze (a) - leave chestnuts as is after removing them from the syrup. Any remaining syrup will dry creating a simple glaze.
- Opaque Glaze (b) - take a few tablespoons of the syrup chestnuts were cooked in and mix it with with powdered sugar until you get a runny paste. Deep each chestnuts in the glaze and place on a wire rack to dry.
- Shiny Glaze (c) - same as the previous one, marron glacce syrup mixed with powdered sugar, but in this case instead of air-drying place glazed chestnuts on a baking sheet lines with parchment paper and dry in a preheated to 392 F (200C) oven with fan-forced for 2 minutes. Then transfer on a wire rack and let cool until dry.
Extra Tips & Tricks
- The sugar syrup will become thicker and reduce each day but chestnuts should stay covered in syrup at all times. If needed prepare 1:1 sugar water syrup and add to the pot with candied chestnuts. Don't add much, just enough to cover the chestnuts. For this reason it's best to use a pot that would fit all chestnuts in a single layer or or two full layers.
- 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 some broken chestnuts don’t worry - the broken pieces don’t look pretty but they taste equally delicious.
- Facilitate scoring chestnuts by placing them in a bowl of water and let soak for 30 minutes before scoring.
- 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
Marron Glacé - Candied Chestnut Treats
Ingredients
- 1 lb chestnuts peeled or 2 lb chestnuts with shells
- 1 lb sugar
- 2 cups water
- 1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Day 1
- Score Chestnuts using a chestnut knife: Stick the tip of the knife blade at the bottom of the chestnut on the side. Slit the chestnuts 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 the inner skin, but PAY ATTENTION not to go too deep to avoid cutting the chestnut pulp. It takes practice but eventually, you'll get a hang of it.
- If you don't have a chestnut knife, score Chestnuts using a small pairing knife: Make a long slit cut across the rounded side of a chestnut. Try to cut through the inner skin but avoid cutting the chestnut pulp.
- Soak scored chestnuts in a bowl filled with warm water for 30-60 minutes.
- Bring a pot with water to a boil. Add 5-8 chestnuts, once water comes to a boil again boil for 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a bowl lined with kitchen towel and cover to help chestnuts steam. You'll notice how they'll start to open even more. Start peeling chestnuts immediately removing both hard shell and thin inner skin. Make sure to keep the rest of the chestnuts covered with a kitchen towel.
- While peeling the first batch of chestnuts, wait for the water to come a boil again and parboil the second batch of chestnuts. for 5 minutes.
- Repeat the process with the remaining chestnuts.
- Weight peeled chestnuts making sure to discard any bad ones. You can still use broken pieces for candying, they're perfect for tasting. The weight of the chestnuts is how much sugar and water you'll need by weight.The ratio for chestnuts, sugar and water is 1:1:1.
- Cut gauze, tulle or cheesecloth into large squares.
- Put two chestnuts together with their flat sides touching and wrap them tightly into a little bundle. Make sure to make a double knot so they won't fall apart during various stages of candying.
- Select a pot that will fit all chestnuts, preferably in a single layer. Mix sugar, water and vanilla extra or vanilla pod (slit in half and seeds scraped out), bring to a boil.
- Once syrup comes to a boil arrange chestnut bundles in the pot. Make sure they're covered with syrup. If not, prepare a little more sugar syrup in a separate pot (always 1:1 sugar and water ratio) and add to the pot with chestnuts.
- Bring syrup with chestnuts to a boil and once boiling cook for 14-15 minutes with a lid slightly open. Turn the heat off, leave the lid half open and let chestnuts cool in syrup until the next day.
Day 2
- Using a pair of thongs remove chestnuts from the syrup. Bring it to a boil, place back chestnut bundles, wait for a boil, cooked for 1 minute and turn of the heat. Let cool until the next day.
Day 3
- Repeat the boiling and cooling process.
Day 4
- Repeat the boiling and cooling process.
Day 5
- Repeat the boiling and cooling process for the last time. Once chestnuts are completely cool, drain chestnuts still wrapped in gauze using a colander. Maker sure to save all the syrup.
- Carefully cut off the knots and remove chestnuts from gauze.
- Place candied chestnuts on a cooling rack with parchment paper placed underneath for easy cleaning.
Glaze
- Syrup Glaze (a) - leave chestnuts as is after removing them from the syrup. Any remaining syrup will dry creating a simple glaze.
- Opaque Glaze (b) - take a few tablespoons of the syrup chestnuts were cooked in and mix it with with powdered sugar until you get a runny paste. Deep each chestnuts in the glaze and place on a wire rack to dry.
- Shiny Glaze (c) - same as the previous one, marron glacce syrup mixed with powdered sugar, but in this case instead of air-drying place glazed chestnuts on a baking sheet lines with parchment paper and dry in a preheated to 392 F (200C) oven with fan-forced for 2 minutes. Then transfer on a wire rack and let cool until dry.
Notes
- The sugar syrup will become thicker and reduce each day but chestnuts should stay covered in syrup at all times. If needed prepare 1:1 sugar water syrup and add to the pot with candied chestnuts. Don't add much, just enough to cover the chestnuts. For this reason it's best to use a pot that would fit all chestnuts in a single layer or or two full layers.
- 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 some broken chestnuts don’t worry - the broken pieces don’t look pretty but they taste equally delicious.
- Facilitate scoring chestnuts by placing them in a bowl of water and let soak for 30 minutes before scoring.
- 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.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Krista
ok! I've made it through to the oven drying stage. Not one made it through whole, instead they are all little bits and not glossy,...but more like the look of lumpy mashed potatoes. I found they really fell apart when I boiled them (gently) to cook the centre before starting the sugary process. They still taste great, but there isn't any candied sugar around the bits. Could I make a little new batch of caremilized sugar, redip them and put them back in the oven to harden them up with clear sugar? I defintely have to practice this some more. Some of it i just ended up blending to make sweet paste.
Svi @ ItalianRecipeBook
Candied chestnuts are one of the trickiest recipes to make! Gosh, I'm sorry to hear none kept whole, you've put so much work and patience into it.
Here's how you can trouble shoot with the next batch. Make sure you get marron chestnuts and not just any variety. Before boiling, pack them separately in a piece of cheese cloth (2 or 3 per envelope) - this is how they do it in commercial production. Reduce the initial cooking time (before cooking in the syrup).
As for the glaze, mix the remaining syrup from candied chestnuts with a little water and powdered sugar until you get creamy white mix. Cover the chestnut pieces, let the excess syrup drain (maybe you can transfer the to a different baking sheet to make it easier) and dry in the oven as per the recipe.
Thank you for keeping me updated on your progress and results. I'm sure your chestnuts tasted great and the next batch will even look great!
Krista
I started this tonight, just with a few, to first test the different cutting options (including an X) to see which ones peeled the easiest. I found the U-shape that you describe using the Italian Chestnut knife to be the best. However, I have found that my chestnuts are like a brain - with a left and a right. The 'skin' that we are trying to also peel away, covers both halves including inside. Do I just leave the entire chestnut meat intact, or break apart the 2 pieces in order to get the skin entirely off both halves? Or...once well candied, will any residual skin be unnoticeable? Thanks again.
Italian Recipe Book
Hi Krista! Yes, I know what kind of chestnuts you're talking about. They are not unusual but luckily there's normally just a few of them in the batch. It's best to get rid of all the inner skin, even if that means to break the chestnut in half (they two parts would eventually separate during further cooking anyway).
Krista
I'm getting ready to start this today. Question for you: Once the Marron de glace are all finished, how do you store them and how long do they keep? Thanks for the thorough instructions with tips and tricks.
Italian Recipe Book
Marron Glaces can be stored at room temperature: for up to 1 month - in an airtight container, for a week - in a cookie jar if you arrange the on a mini cup-cake or a candy-line.
Thank you for your question! It'll definitely add it to the post.
Sara
I followed your recipes exactly, but only 3 of the 27 chestnuts made it through the process whole. I am planning to use some the pieces to top my Chocolate Chestnut Cake, but do you have any suggestions on how else to serve them? Little candy cups? I plan to try this recipe again after Christmas. Thanks!
Sarah
I am so used to roasting chestnuts I roasted them and then decided to make these. Will this still work or should I do something else?
Italian Recipe Book
Hello Sarah, to be honest, I've never tried making Marron Glaces with roasted chestnuts. I suspect it will still work but the result might differ since roasted chestnuts tend to be drier and won't absorb syrup as much..
Isa
It was a long and tedious project but I got thru it. Thank you for the recipe. All of my chestnuts broke despite steaming them. Perhaps the quality was not very good. They taste great and I’ve baked a pound cake with them and used the syrup for the glaze. Definitely elevated the cake. So one question remains: how would you store these? I’ve vacuum packed them and threw it in the freezer for now.
Italian Recipe Book
Hello Isa, congratulations on completing your first batch of Marron Glace and apologies for my slow reply! Quality of chestnuts is the key factor whether they'll keep their shape or not. As for storage, they store really well in fridge in an air tight container. Of course if you need to preserve them for longer you can vaccum pack. Freezing is not necessary. Happy Holidays!
Anonymous
great instructions-such an exquisite treat
Italian Recipe Book
Thank you very much for your comment! Yes, Marron Glaces are so incredibly delicious
David
I've given these a go and on day 4 my Chestnuts are delicious but the texture is slightly harder than I was expecting. What is the texture supposed to be? And if they are supposed to be softer, any thoughts what might be responsible for the hardness? Thank you!
Italian Recipe Book
Hi David, congrats on making it to Day 4 with marron glace. It's definitely not easy to get the perfect consistency of the chestnut from the first time since there's always risk of breakage. So it's a very fine line.
It's best to adjust cooking time when you first boil chestnuts. Taste one chestnut if it still feels too hard boil for another 1-3 minutes.
As an alternative considering you're already at day 4 with your marron glace you can add an extra day to the process. Just do everything you've done the previous days for another day or two and see if it makes them a little softer.
Hope this helps.
Happy Holidays!
RhondaB
I've completed instructions for Day 2 and already these are lovely, thank you for the detailed instructions!
A little tip for those not too worried about imperfect chestnuts: I found a light but firm tap of the chestnut with a a meat-pounding mallet on a hard surface (such as a cutting block) is enough to split the skin without having to cut or score the nut. It takes a bit of practice, but you learn how hard you need to hit the nut to crack it without crushing it quite quickly.
Italian Recipe Book
Hi Rhonda! I'd like to congratulate you for jumping on this 4-day adventure 😀
Awesome job! And thank you for your tip. Enjoy your Marron Glace. Happy Holidays!
Hana
Hello! Very excited to make these.
Do I need to roast the chesnuts before boiling? Or are the chesnuts only boiled? Thank you!!
Italian Recipe Book
Hello Hana, I apologize for the slow reply. There's no need to roast chestnuts before boiling. Just make sure you get the best quality chestnuts possible and follow the steps in the recipe. Let me know if you have any other questions and how it goes. Happy Holidays!
Goganga
You never say when to use the vanilla pod/extract
Italian Recipe Book
Hello Goganga, you should add a vanilla pod or vanilla extract on the first day, when you start preparing the syrup. Thank you for spotting this!
ANGELA PADUANO
WHAT IS THE TEMPERATURE FOR ROASTING THE CHESTNUTS
Italian Recipe Book
Hello Angela, apologies for my slow reply. Temperature to roasting chestnuts in the over is 430-450F (220-230C).