Chestnut-chocolate cream

I have been thinking about chestnuts ever since I had them in Rome...

Recipe adapted from Giallo Zafferano and Julia Child
time: 30 min preparation + 40 min cooking + 1 hr cooling
makes about 2 cups

 ingredients 
350 g (3/4 lb) chestnuts
75 g (5 Tablespoons) butter, diced
75 g (3 oz) dark chocolate, broken in pieces
70 g (1/3 cup) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon rum

 instructions 
Prepare chestnuts: Make 1/8 inch (1/2 cm) wide incisions in the shell of the nuts (one cut per nut). Place chestnuts in a pot with water. Bring to boil and cook for 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, remove 3 nuts at the time. Peel off both, the shell and the skin. Take three more nuts out...and so on. (Set the stubborn ones on the side and cook them later the same way). Cook peeled nuts on low heat for about 40 minutes till tender. Strain and pass them (while hot) through a potato press and into a medium bowl. Combine the puree with sugar, vanilla and rum.

Meanwhile...melt chocolate on top of hot water. Add butter, stir to melt. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the chestnut mix. With a hand-held immersion blender, blend the cream till smooth. Transfer it into cups and set it in the fridge for 1 hour.

NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES 

• well balanced, not overly sweet, with a subtle taste of chocolate and chestnuts;
• it is rich but delicate in taste and texture; somewhere between chestnut ice cream and Nutella;
• I have never used chestnuts in my kitchen, the edible variety doesn't even grow in Poland but I really have missed them...just like I've missed Rome, where they are sold on the streets, roasted;
• how to peel the nuts for my recipe was the biggest question/challenge; I finally checked with Julia and followed her instructions; still...it was not easy; 
• the shell is the brown, hard part; the skin is the soft, thin part;
• to get the shell off, I used my fingers and/or a small knife; I peeled it like I would peel an orange; be careful not to cut your finger;
• the thin skin sometimes came off together with the shell...and sometimes it didn't, so I slowly scraped the remains with a knife;
• the rest was easy; cooling/hardening process was fast;
• even easier and faster was emptying the little dishes filled with my creamy chestnut delight.