These calzoncelli di castagne are a speciality of the Puglia region, though versions of this pastry are made throughout the country, with different names and fillings…
Recipe & photo © Mario Matassa
Fried chocolate & chestnut pastries | Calzoncelli di castagne
➤ MAKES: about 20
➤ PREPARATION: 30-45 minutes, plus resting
➤ COOKING: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
- 300g plain flour
- 50g unsalted butter, softened
- 100ml milk
- 1 medium free-range egg
- 50g caster sugar
For the filling:
- 100ml plain chocolate
- 50ml coffee
- 250g pre-cooked chestnuts
- 100g caster sugar
- 40g plain cocoa powder
- 3 heaped tbsp plum or apricot jam
- peanut oil, for frying
To serve:
- icing sugar
Instructions:
- To make the pastry, place all the pastry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together to form a smooth but soft dough. Leave to rest for 30 minutes while you make the filling.
- To make the filling, begin by melting the chocolate in a double boiler with the coffee. In a large bowl, add the chestnuts and mash with the back of a fork. Leave as fine or as chunky as you wish (this is personal choice – I prefer mine to have a few chestnut chunks in the filling). Next, add the sugar, cocoa powder, jam and melted chocolate and coffee. Stir everything together really well, then leave to cool.
- Once the filling is cool, begin to roll out the pastry. As you are effectively making over-sized ravioli, I use my pasta machine to roll the dough out to the right thickness of about 2-3mm. If you haven’t got a pasta machine, simply roll the dough out by hand. Once the dough has been rolled to the right thickness, cut out circles around 6-7cm in diameter and add a tablespoon of the filling to the centre. Brush the borders with water and seal with another circle of pastry. Continue until all the filling and pastry is used up.
- Next, heat some peanut oil in a large, high-sided frying pan set over a medium heat – the oil should be about 5cm deep. When hot but not smoking, add the pastries in batches and cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on kitchen paper and dust with icing sugar once cool.
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