Yes, you can make chestnut truffles in the pressure cooker, or rather, you cook your raw chestnuts so that you can use their delicious pulp in this recipe. I’m not one to make sweets so I wouldn’t even be proposing this dessert recipe to you unless it was super simple!
But, prepping the chestnuts, though easy, is tedious and may take a while so plan that into your schedule or enlist helpers if they can resist eating the soft, warm, delicious chestnut pulp as it’s pulled out of the shell!No need to make origami holders for these (as I did), you can serve these truffles stacked as an impressive pyramid on a cake stand, in beautiful porcelain urn bowl or place each one in cupcake wrappers and tuck them together nice and snug on a tray or casserole dish.
| Pressure Cooker | Accessories | Pr. Cook Time | Pr. Level | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 L or larger | none | 8 min. | High(2) | Natural |
- 2 pounds (1 kilo) fresh Chestnuts
- ½ cup (150g) Sugar
- 10 tablespoons (150g) Butter
- 1 cup of whole Hazelnuts (or almonds), unshelled
- ½ cup (125 ml) Rum Liquor (or Rum flavoring)
- ¼ cup Bitter or Sweet Chocolate Powder (depending on your preference)
- Wash the chestnuts well, place in your pressure cooker without peeling, cutting or piercing - in other words whole!
- Cover with about 2 inches or 5 cm of water Bay Laurel leaves and two tablespoons of sugar.
- Close and lock the lid of the pressure cooker. Turn the heat up to high and when the cooker reaches pressure, lower to the heat to the minimum required by the cooker to maintain pressure. Cook for 8 minutes at high pressure.
- When time is up, open the pressure cooker with the Natural release method - move the cooker off the burner and wait for the pressure to come down on its own (about 10 minutes). For electric pressure cookers, disengage the “keep warm” mode or unplug the cooker and open when the pressure indicator has gone down (20 to 30 minutes).
- The chestnuts are the easiest to work with while they are still warm and moist. So just take a few out of the pressure cooker at a time.
- Slice each chestnut in half and with a small, rounded object (I used the handle of my teaspoon) insert, twist and get most of the pulp out - leaving the brown fuzzy skin in the shell or picking it out of your chestnut pulp bowl if they fall in.
- Mix in the liquor, melted butter and sugar and mash finely with a potato masher - you can also use a potato ricer or food mill for this step. If the mix is too wet, let it rest for up to an hour while the chestnut pulp absorbs the excess liquid.
- Then, form a small ball in your hand, tuck in the whole hazelnut, place the little ball in a plate that is already dusted with cocoa powder to keep them from sticking.
- Dirzzle a little cocoa powder on top and then roll again, in your hands, into a tighter ball.
- Do this step in batches, because your hands will get gooey and chocolaty.
- Refrigerate for an hour or overnight before serving.
Makes 30-48 balls
Truffles look super cute! Like the theme of your site very much. I prefer pressure cooking than microwave, quick and healthy too. Keep rocking!
Wow, who knew?! What a wonderful idea for holiday baking! very cute presentation!
Ciao, bello questo blog, ma manca il traduttore… mi aggiungo ai tuoi sostenitori, ti va di aggiungerti ai miei?… a presto con il traduttore ^__^
Wow. I think I need to buy a pressure cooker. Right now!!
Seriously? All those years of scoring chestnuts and prying them away from their skins and getting the shells up underneath my fingernails? Where have you been all my life?
These worked a treat for us. I sub’ed the rum for Cointreau (left in the cupboard). I didn’t use the hazelnut, mixture tasted nutty enough to me. I pressed the mixture into a silcon ice-cube tray that had been well dusted down with cocoa, then popped then into the freezer. That way I can just pop out a few at a time – perfect for a after-dinner treat or take a little box round to friends:)
Thanks for a great recipe.
I made these this afternoon using 1/4 cup of sweetener and 1/4 cup of rum, 10 oz. of melted unsalted butter, and just 1 pound 9 ounces of chestnuts. I substituted macadamia nuts for hazelnuts, since that was what I could find here. They are quite yummy!
I peeled the chestnuts before I read this recipe – the old fashioned way, cutting X’s in the hull, and roasting them, then peeling them while still warm. It took quite a while! Is it really easier just dumping them in the pressure cooker and then peeling them?
Holy Cow! This looks great. Quick question: Do you think you can cook chestnuts in the pressure cooker for easy peeling, then finish in oven to get the roasted flavor?
You might want to pierce the skin so they don’t “explode” in the pressure cooker. I haven’t tried this myself but I did start baking chestnuts and forget to pierce them – they “pop” quite fiercely and leave dents.
Ciao,
L