Chestnut Cream

Chestnut cream — crema di castagne — an Italian preserve made by cooking chestnuts down with sugar until they collapse into a smooth, dense paste. It is not a jam: there is no fruit acidity in it and no set. It behaves more like a nut butter, thick and spoonable, with the faint sweetness of roasted chestnut and nothing sharp anywhere.

It is one of the great autumn spreads in Italy and France, and one of the least known outside them. Anyone who has eaten a Mont Blanc has eaten this.

• Italian chestnut cream, smooth and thick
• Sweet and mild — no acidity, no set
• For brioche, crêpes, yoghurt and desserts
• The base of a Mont Blanc
• A jar for autumn and winter

How to use it. On warm brioche or toasted bread with butter underneath — the salt is what makes it work. Folded through plain yoghurt or whipped cream. Spooned over vanilla ice cream. In crêpes instead of chocolate spread. Or piped over meringue with cream for a rough Mont Blanc, which takes ten minutes and looks like it took an hour.