After illness and a spell in hospital meant a prolonged absence from work and therefore no money to splash on Christmas gifts this year, an article in the Observer about homemade Christmas gifts caught my eye.
I decided to attempt the Marrons Glacés, for two reasons – firstly they were the item most expensive to buy in the shops (£19), but still as cheap as the others to make (£2.50). And secondly, they were the item with the least steps and ingredients to manage!
So after sourcing my cooked and peeled whole chestnuts from Asda, i went about boiling a kilogram of sugar in a litre of water, before adding the chestnuts and letting them simmer for 10 mins.
After letting the nut syrup concoction cool i repeated the heat, simmer, cool step 5 times throughout the day, then let the nuts drain on a wire rack. The end result was surprisingly tasty, even if I say so myself, and packaging up half a dozen nuts in a little cellophane parcel to give to friends and family made me feel better than giving them nothing at all.
