Chestnut Cream Cake Roll (Mont Blanc Cake)

Chestnut Cream Cake Roll (or Mont Blanc cake roll) is a pastry topped with vermicelli shape chestnut paste cream.

Different from French Mont Blanc cake who usually has a hard meringue or biscuit bottom, Japanese-style chestnut cream cake always has a soft and fluffy chiffon cake bottom.

Today we are going to make a creamy and mouthwatering Japanese style Mont Blanc cake with homemade chiffon roll cake and freshly made chestnut cream.

What does “Mont Blanc” mean?

Mont Blanc, which means “white mountain” in French, is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe.

The white icing sugar and whipped cream on top of the chestnut cake look like the white snow on Mont Blanc. That’s why this dessert was named after this snow-capped mountain.

The dessert Mont Blanc was created in nineteenth-century in Italy, and was introduced to Japan in 1933.

In Japan, people always like their desserts to be less sweet and more fluffy (ふわふわ, “fuwa fuwa” in Japanese). That’s probably why it is very common for a Japanese Mont Blanc to use a soft sponge cake base instead of a biscuit bottom, and to skip the icing sugar and substitute it with fresh fruits.

However, no matter to how much the original Italian chestnut cream cake has been adapted, a Mont Blanc should always have chestnut purée in this staple vermicelli shape.

How to make chestnut paste and chestnut cream

Chestnut paste is sweet, creamy, and nutty. Simply spread some on your toasts, breads, or crackers, your taste buds will be so comforted by its delicate autumn-limited taste.

Chestnut paste made from fresh chestnuts is a treasure of nature. The taste of store-bought chestnut paste or chestnut cream can never compete with homemade ones!

Chestnut paste is not hard to make at all. You just peel the chestnuts, boil them until fork-tender, then blend them with butter and sugar until smooth. However, these steps could be time-consuming. Anyway, patience is the secret to good food.

How to peel chestnuts easily?

1. Cut chestnuts

When heated, the chestnut kernels will expand larger than the shells. If we don’t cut a slit on the shell, the chestnut will explode like a popcorn if pressure difference is too high.

Even if it doesn’t explode, the expanded kernel will stick to the shell tightly, which makes it very hard to peel.

Therefore, you need to score the chestnut shells with an “X” using a knife or a chestnut clip before cooking.

2. Cook chestnuts

Chestnut shell and membrane will separate from the kernel after it is heated. That’s why we always cook the chestnuts before peeling them.

My personal favorite method is air frying them, with the scored side facing up, at 180 °C (355 °F) for about 15 minutes, or until all the chestnuts are opened up.

Or you can bake them at 205 °C (400 °F) until they are fully opened.

I won’t recommend using the boiling method. Because the chestnuts will lose much flavor in water, and they could be less easily to peel when they are wet.

Note that we only cook the chestnuts to peel them easily in this step. They don’t need to be fully cooked.

3. Peel chestnuts

Peel they chestnuts when they are still hot. They will be hard to peel once cooled down.

When you feel that they are getting harder to peel, you can send them back to air fryer or oven to reheat for 5 more minutes until they are fully opened again.

How to make chestnut paste?

1. Boil chestnuts

Boil peeled chestnuts with a black tea bag to add some tea aroma and some brownish color.

Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until fork-tender.

2. Blend chestnuts

Using a blender, blend boiled chestnuts (together with the soup) with butter and brown sugar until smooth. The finished texture should be similar to peanut butter. If it feels too dry to blend, you can add 1 tbsp of water at a time.

Can I make chestnut paste with store bought chestnut puree?

Yes, you can.

But store bought canned chestnut puree usually contains more water than home blended chestnut puree. You can blend 400g canned chestnut puree with 30g butter and 30g brown sugar until smooth, pour the mixture to a frying pan, pan fry it over medium low heat until it reaches a paste thickness.

How to make chestnut cream?

Once you have your homemade chestnut paste ready, mix the chestnut paste and heavy whipping cream at a ratio of 2:1, whipped it with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form – the peaks stand straight up when the beaters are lifted, and the peaks won’t collapse or dissolve as time goes by.

If you don’t want to use heavy whipping cream, you can also mix chestnut paste and milk (or vegan milk) at a ratio of 4:1, whip until smooth.

EQUIPMENT you will need:

• Blender
• Hand mixer
• Piping bags
• 8-hole piping tip (size 234)

INGREDIENTS  

For making chestnut paste

• 250 g peeled cooked chestnuts
• 250 g water
• 1 black tea bag (To add some brown color and some tea aroma. Skip if you don’t like/have black tea.)
• 30 g unsalted butter
• 30 g brown sugar (or cane sugar)

For making chestnut cream

• 200 g chestnut paste (About half of the chestnut paste you made)
• 100 g heavy whipping cream

For making the roll cake base

• 4 large eggs (Each egg weighs about 60g with shell)
• 50 g cake flour (Can be substituted with 40g all purpose flour + 10g cornstarch)
• 40 g vegetable oil
• 40 g milk (I used milk tea instead. You can also use soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk, or even water.)
• ⅔ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• ⅔ tsp lemon juice (Or white vinegar. Actually optional if you are skillful at whipping egg whites.)
• 60 g sugar

For the vanilla cream filling

• 200 g heavy whipping cream
• 15 g powdered sugar (can be substituted with cane sugar)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 10 blueberries (or fruits of your choice)

For decorations

• 6 blueberries
• 3 lotus biscoff cookies
• Some herbs (I used some thymes, cuz I only had that at home. Some mint leaves would actually be better!)

Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Make a Japanese Roll Cake by following this recipe. Wrap the roll cake with a piece of parchment paper, keep it in a food storage bag, seal the bag and store in the freezer until ready to use.

2. Add 250g peeled cooked chestnuts, 250g cold water, and 1 black tea bag to a small saucepot, cover the lid and bring the water to a boil. Let simmer at medium-low heat for 40 minutes until fork-tender.

3. Pour the boiled chestnuts with the soup, 30g unsalted butter, and 30g brown sugar into a blender. Blend until smooth. (You can add 1 tbsp of water at a time it it feels too dry to blend. The texture should be similar to peanut butter after it’s blended.)

4. Add 200g chestnut paste and 100g heavy whipping cream to a mixing bowl, whip with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form – the peaks stand straight up when the beaters are lifted, and the peaks won’t collapse or dissolve as time goes by.

5. Add the 234 tip to a piping bag. Transfer the chestnut cream to the bag. Push out the air bubbles and give it a test.

6. Pipe the chestnut vermicelli in a back and forth pattern until the cake’s top surface is entirely covered.

7. Decorate with blueberries, cookies, and herbs. Refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight (it actually tastes better after being refrigerated overnight) before slicing and serving.

To Store

• Can be stored in the refrigerator in a fully covered container for 3 days. (You can store the chiffon cake roll in the freezer until ready to use, but do not keep the chestnut cream cake in the freezer.)

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