These gluten free chestnut cookies take advantage of that rich chestnut flavor. If you have ever wondered what to do with roasted chestnuts, why not try a fun roasted chestnuts recipe?
Winter is all about warm fires and roasting chestnuts. I can just hear that chestnuts roasting song in my mind. If you love the winter and holidays as much as we do, you will want to check out my best gluten free holiday cookies recipes!!
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Chestnuts are one of the least used ingredients in baking. I am not sure why, they add a sweet nutty flavor to baked goods like these cookies. They have a distinctive sweet flavor that is hard to forget. Note, you don't want to eat them raw because they are somewhat bitter!
If you want to explore another delicious chestnut recipe, here is another recipe to try using chestnut flour: Gluten Free Chestnut Apple Bacon Scones.
Where to find roasted chestnuts:
I am so happy to have found the little boxes of roasted chestnuts at our local Trader Joe's. Have you seen them in the refrigerated section? Trust me, these are so much easier than roasting your own chestnuts. Trader Joe's also sells unroasted chestnuts in their produce section.
A local Japanese grocery store, Mitsuwa, sells fresh and roasted chestnuts as well. (Just in case you like your chestnuts freshly roasted and don't want to do the work :-).
How to roast chestnuts in an oven:
If you decide you do want to roast your chestnuts, this is the easiest way:
- Preheat your oven to 400º F.
- Get your chestnuts out of the bag.
- Take a sharp knife and slice a + at the top of each chestnut. This is SUPER important so that the steam can be released during cooking. Exploding chestnuts can be dangerous and messy!
- Bake with the + side up on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes.
How to roast chestnuts over a fire:
This is for the brave at heart. You will need a special basket to roast your chestnuts in. I have this vegetable grilling basket that I like to use.
- Preheat your grill (or start a campfire, fire in a fire pit, or another safe fire.)
- You will want to use a sharp knife and slice a + at the top of each chestnut as described above.
- Put the chestnuts into the grill basket.
- Cook until the chestnuts start to open around the + sign.
Here is what the packaging looks like if you want to buy the pre-roasted chestnuts at Trader Joe's:
I will be honest, the chestnuts are pretty ugly in their little vacuum-packed bag...so I didn't photograph them closely. (Okay, they look like poop :-), but they taste like a delicious freshly roasted chestnut!)
I first became addicted to roasted chestnuts when we were at our local Japanese grocery, Mistuwa. There is a small stand in front of the store where you can buy freshly roasted chestnuts. The line was always long, but it was worth the wait.
Now you can get that same roasted chestnut flavor without the long lines.
The beauty of these gluten free chestnut cookies is their flavor. These cookies are delicious by themselves, or dip the bottoms in some dark chocolate!
What you need to make these cookies:
- Roasted chestnuts - shells removed.
- Gluten free flour blend - I used Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 GF Blend in this recipe, but many other brands should work.
- Xanthan Gum - add if your gluten free flour blend does not contain this ingredient.
- Sugar
- Butter - use vegan butter if you would like these cookies to be dairy-free
- Pure vanilla extract - I do not recommend imitation vanilla.
Recipe step by step directions:
Step 1: Prepare your chestnuts with one of the methods above. Next, you will want to grind your chestnuts into small pieces.
How to grind roasted chestnuts:
I used my Cuisinart Immersion Blender attachment to grind up the chestnuts into a coarse mixture. (This is by far one of my favorite and most used kitchen gadgets. It whips, grinds, blends, and is super easy to clean up!)
You can also use a food processor if you have that. A Vitamix might work, I haven't tried this method. If you use a Vitamix, you will want to be careful not to over grind your chestnuts into a paste.
You can see the ground texture I used for the chestnuts in these cookies:
It is fine to have some larger chunks of chestnut...it gives the cookies a little texture.
Step 2: Put the dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk to blend.
Step 3: In a smaller bowl, add your wet ingredients and mix well. Add your liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients.
Step 4: Mix the wet and dry ingredients into a dough like the photo above. Sorry for the dark photo but I wanted to show you what the dough looks like. As you can see the dough is on the stiff side.
Step 5: Use a cookie scoop to drop cookie dough balls onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.
To see all of the cookie recipes on this site, click here gluten free cookies.
Step 6: Optional - Feel free to dip your roasted chestnut cookies in dark chocolate. To do this, melt dark chocolate in a microwave-safe dish. Dip the bottoms of the baked cookies and set onto wax paper to allow the chocolate to harden.
More Cookie Recipes to Try:
- Gluten Free Cranberry Shortbread Bars
- Gluten Free Vanillekipferl Cookies
- Gluten Free Nutella Stuffed Linzer Tart Cookies
- Gluten Free Sugar Cookies
Reader Review:
This morning we went for a walk and found chestnuts across street. Came back home, roast them, found this recipe and voila! Learned xanthan gum’s sub is an egg white. Also melted a sneaker bar for the chocolate.
Nancy L. Pinterest User
📖 Recipe
Gluten Free Chestnut Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup ground roasted chestnuts
- 1 cup Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour *see note
- ½ cup sugar feel free to use less if you plan to dip these in chocolate
- ½ cup butter melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F.
- In a grinder or food processor, grind chestnuts to medium texture blend.
- Add all dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk to blend.
- In a small bowl, add butter, vanilla and egg.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well.
- Drop by scoop onto a greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until done.
- Remove and allow to cool on a cooling rack.
- Optional, dip the bottom into chocolate. I used this Wilton chocolate.
Notes
- If your flour blend has xanthan gum included great. If the blend you are using doesn't have it, add 1 teaspoon.
- Use a cuisinart, food processor, or Vitamix to grind up your roasted chestnuts into a fine grind.
- These cookies will keep up to 4 days in an air-tight container, or up to 4 months in the freezer.
Nutrition
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(*This post was updated from a 12/2015 post)
Lisa
How would I modify this recipe if I wanted to use regular all purpose flour instead of gluten free?
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Lisa, I haven't used wheat flour in about 10 years so I am not 100% sure but I see no reason regular flour wouldn't work.
Alene
I have chestnut flour. Can I use that instead? I adore chestnuts. Thank you!
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Alene, I am not sure that chestnut flour would work the same as ground chestnuts because the ground chestnuts are moist and the flour is dry and absorbs more liquid. I do have a delicious chestnut flour scone recipe. If you try the flour in cookies, please let us know how it turns out.