Vegan Bunny Elle

Inspired by an iconic Chinese street food, this roasting method gives every one of your chestnuts a “big smile” and makes shelling super easy.

In wintertime, one of my favorite street foods was candied roasted chestnuts, or 糖炒栗子 in Chinese. The traditional method is to roast the whole chestnuts in a big, slow-rotating barrel with lots of tiny pebbles. The stones get heated up, then transfer the heat to the chestnuts from all angles very evenly, resulting in perfectly roasted chestnuts without burnt sides or undercooked sides.

The use of sugar in the traditional Chinese street food version is more to get a shiny, glistening, appetizing glaze on the chestnuts rather than to sweeten the already sweet and creamy chestnuts. I can still remember the excitement I’d feel when I got a bag of aromatic, shiny, steaming hot chestnuts in the chilly winter! The best type of sugar to use in this recipe is rock sugar, which will give your chestnuts the most gorgeous glaze. This link is the one I got online since I couldn’t find any in my local grocery stores.

At home, however, it’s unrealistic to have those large-scale tools or easy access to the right type of pebbles. So instead, we can roast our chestnuts simply in a large pan, on the stovetop. The result achieved is very similar to the street food version I remembered! Each chestnut would crack a big “smile”, come out of the shell easily, and have the shiniest, prettiest candy glaze.

Candied Roasted Chestnuts

No more struggle to peel the chestnuts! This method is easy, fail proof, and literally “crack them up” 😉

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Ingredients Method Video Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 pound fresh chestnuts
• 2-3 tablespoon avocado oil
• 1 tablespoon rock sugar see note

Method

 

1. Wash and dry your chestnuts;
2. Place the chestnuts on your cutting board flat side down, dome side up, a little hack here, you can use a bottle cap to hold them in place and keep the chestnut from rolling around;
3. You can either make one long horizontal cut on the dome side of the chestnut, or make a criss cross cut, repeat the same with all of them;
4. In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat, add in the sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves and turns into a pretty amber color, I love using rock sugar for the best shine and glaze, but regular white sugar works too;
5. Carefully transfer all the chestnuts into the pan, quickly stir and coat them evenly in the oil and sugar, they will start popping and bursting open at this point, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes until the popping slows down;
6. Add just enough water to cover them, cover with the lid and let them simmer for 25 minutes;
7. Open the lid and stir again, let the chestnuts continue to cook, uncovered, until all liquid has evaporated;
8. You can eat them warm or chilled, enjoy!

Video

Notes

For the best results and most authentic choice, use rock sugar, linking the one I used and got online. You can also use regular white sugar, but it’ll yield a duller glaze.