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Small Pastries

Homemade Marrons Glacés (Candied Chestnuts)

Soft, sugary candied chestnuts that nobody can resist: here are all our tips and secrets for making marrons glacés at home.
Recipe Homemade Marrons Glacés (Candied Chestnuts)
  • Difficulty Difficult
  • Preparation 1 hour
  • Cooking 30 minutes
  • Servings for 4 people

Marrons Glacés are among the most popular Christmas Sweets to give and receive: after all, who could not love a tender chestnut wrapped in a sugar shell? In fall and winter these little treats are easy to find almost everywhere, from supermarkets to pastry shops… but after watching Italian pastry chef Montersino make them on TV, we decided to make Homemade Marrons Glacés!

Let’s say right away that this recipe takes time and patience: it takes a full 4 days to get Marrons Glacés ready to enjoy, plus a good dose of calm to remove the shell and inner skin of the chestnuts. The result, though, will be something spectacular that is worth all the effort!

Candied Chestnuts are a very old recipe: their origins date back to around the 1500s, between France and Italy, while the first written recipe comes from a treatise printed in Turin in 1790 entitled “The Piedmontese Confectioner, Who Teaches How to Candy Fruit in Various Ways, Make Biscuits, Marzipans, Canestrelli, Brandies, Sorbets and Many Other Things Belonging to This Art”.

Once your Marrons Glacés are ready, you can store them in a tin, place them in paper candy cups or use them in recipes such as Chestnut Tartlets.
If you love Chestnut Recipes as much as we do, don’t forget to try Mont Blanc Tartlets and Chestnut Truffles.

Ingredients for 4 people

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Method

  1. To make Homemade Marrons Glacés, start by scoring the shell of the chestnuts all the way around and soaking them in water overnight.
    Homemade Marrons Glacés, step 1: chestnuts scored all around and soaking in water
  2. The next day, bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the chestnuts, no more than 10-15 at a time, for two minutes from when the water returns to a boil.
  3. Drain them and patiently remove the shell and the inner skin. If the skin is hard to peel off, bring another pot of water to a boil and dip the chestnuts in it for a few minutes: this will make the job easier. At this stage, however, it is very important not to use the water from the first boil, or the chestnuts will turn dark.
    Homemade Marrons Glacés, step 3: blanched chestnuts with the shell and inner skin removed
  4. Once peeled, transfer them to a steamer basket and lower it into a pot full of boiling water for 10 minutes, or until the flesh can easily be pierced with a toothpick. Drain them without taking them out of the basket and cool them in lukewarm water to stop the cooking.
    Homemade Marrons Glacés, step 4: peeled chestnuts in a steamer basket
  5. Now start making the syrup. In a pot, combine 1 liter of water and 900 grams of sugar. When it comes to a boil, lower the chestnuts in with the basket and let them cook for 4 minutes from when it returns to a gentle boil.
    Homemade Marrons Glacés, step 5: chestnuts in the basket cooking in sugar syrup
  6. Turn off the heat and let the chestnuts cool in the syrup for 24 hours. Repeat the process 3 more times.
  7. After the second or third day the syrup will have reduced. Add the remaining sugar and water to bring it back to its level, so the chestnuts stay covered while they boil.
  8. Let the chestnuts cool completely on a sheet of parchment paper before dusting them with powdered sugar. Finally, remember to download our App with exclusive content and fewer ads!
    Candied chestnuts dusted with powdered sugar

Tips

We recommend buying marroni, a type of chestnut that, unlike regular chestnuts, has firmer flesh and a larger size.

Storage

Homemade Marrons Glacés keep in a tin for up to a month. Alternatively, you can place them in individual paper cups and give them to your friends.

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