Chestnut Puree substitute

Best substitute

Homemade puree from cooked chestnuts

Use the same amount by weight as the chestnut puree you are replacing

Best for Mont Blanc

Close match

Jarred, canned or vacuum-packed peeled cooked chestnuts, simmered and blended.

Other chestnut puree substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Cooked mashed sweet potato with sugar and butter
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, plus sugar to taste
Roasted or boiled sweet potato mashed smooth and sweetened.
What changes
Best for
buche de Noel filling, tart fillings, piped decoration, stuffing
The best non-chestnut option for anything that needs to hold a shape, because sweet potato has the same dry, starchy body rather than a watery one. Roast rather than boil so it does not take on extra moisture. It is sweeter than chestnut and slightly more fibrous, and the colour is distinctly orange, so a Mont Blanc made with it looks wrong even if it pipes beautifully. A tablespoon of rum and a pinch of salt narrows the flavour gap noticeably.
3Pureed cannellini or butter beans with sugar and vanilla
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, plus sugar to taste
Drained canned white beans blended completely smooth and sweetened.
What changes
Best for
layered desserts, tart fillings, lower-sugar versions, buche de Noel
Sounds unlikely and works remarkably well, which is why it turns up in lower-sugar dessert recipes. The texture match is the best of any substitute here, thick, smooth and mildly starchy in exactly the right way. Flavour is where it falls short: it is bland with a faint beany note. Blend with a tablespoon of browned butter or a splash of dark rum and it becomes hard to identify in a filling. Blend far longer than feels necessary to eliminate any graininess.
4Canned pumpkin puree with sugar and vanilla
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, plus sugar to taste
Plain canned pumpkin, not pie filling, sweetened and flavoured.
What changes
Best for
tart fillings, soups, mousses, cake fillings
The most commonly suggested swap and the weakest of the three vegetable options. It is noticeably wetter, so a filling made with it is looser and a piped Mont Blanc slumps. Cook it in a dry pan for five minutes to drive off moisture, or stiffen it with a couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar. The flavour is clearly vegetal and pumpkin-forward and the colour is bright orange. Good in a soup, adequate in a mousse, poor for anything piped.
5Almond paste thinned with cream
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, thinned to a spreadable consistency
Ground almond and sugar paste loosened with a little cream or milk.
What changes
Best for
buche de Noel, cake fillings, layered pastries
Structurally an excellent match, since it is a sweet, thick nut paste that behaves the way chestnut cream does in a rolled cake. It is much sweeter and unmistakably almond, so cut other sugar in the recipe. Do not pretend it tastes of chestnut; treat it as a deliberate change of flavour that happens to work in the same dessert.
6Chestnut flour cooked into a paste
Different texture
Use ¼ cup flour whisked into ¾ cup milk for every cup of puree needed
Ground dried chestnuts cooked with liquid until thick.
What changes
Best for
tart fillings, soups, cake fillings, puddings
Genuinely chestnut-flavoured, which no vegetable puree is, and worth seeking out in Italian delis where it is sold for castagnaccio. Whisk the flour into cold milk, bring to a simmer and cook for five minutes, stirring, then sweeten. The result is grainier and the chestnut flavour is stronger and slightly smokier than fresh puree, so use a little less than the recipe calls for.

What is Chestnut Puree?

Chestnut Puree is Chestnut puree is cooked chestnuts blended smooth, sold either unsweetened as puree de marrons for stuffings and soups, or heavily sweetened with sugar and vanilla as creme de marrons, the spreadable chestnut cream used in French desserts.

Cooking tips

Work out which product your recipe means before you shop. Creme de marrons or chestnut cream is a loose, very sweet vanilla-scented spread that comes in a tube or jar. Puree de marrons or chestnut puree is dense, unsweetened and often canned as a firm block. Using the sweetened one where unsweetened is called for makes a dessert cloying and a stuffing strange.
You can turn unsweetened into sweetened but not the other way round. For 1 cup (250 g) of unsweetened puree, warm in about 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla until it dissolves. If you only have creme de marrons and need plain puree, cut the recipe's remaining sugar hard and accept a sweeter result.
Chestnut mixtures go pasty and gluey if you beat them, especially once cream or butter is in. Fold gently with a spatula and stop as soon as it comes together.
Push the puree through a fine sieve or a potato ricer before piping. The fine vermicelli strands of a Mont Blanc depend on a completely smooth, lump-free paste, and any bean or vegetable substitute needs this step even more than real chestnut does.
A tablespoon of dark rum, or a strip of vanilla bean simmered in the milk, lifts any chestnut filling and does a lot to cover for a substitute. Chestnut on its own is mild and slightly flat, which is why classic recipes almost always include one or the other.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between chestnut puree and creme de marrons?

Chestnut puree, or puree de marrons, is just cooked chestnuts blended with a little water, unsweetened, and is used in soups, stuffings and as a base you sweeten yourself. Creme de marrons is that puree cooked with a lot of sugar and vanilla syrup into a sweet spread. Recipes for Mont Blanc and buche de Noel usually want the sweetened one, or a mixture of both.

Can I use water chestnuts instead?

No. Despite the name, water chestnuts are the crunchy white corms of an aquatic plant and have nothing to do with chestnuts. They are watery, faintly sweet and stay crisp even when cooked, so they will not puree into anything resembling chestnut paste.

Can I just leave chestnut puree out?

In a stuffing or a soup, yes, though you will need something else for body, such as breadcrumbs or a little potato. In a Mont Blanc or a chestnut buche it is the entire flavour of the dessert, so leaving it out means making something different. In that case either buy vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts and make your own puree, or pick a recipe that suits the ingredient you do have.

Is chestnut spread the same as chestnut cream?

Generally yes. Chestnut spread, chestnut cream and creme de marrons all refer to the sweetened version. Some brands sell a slightly firmer product labelled chestnut paste, which sits between the two, so check the ingredients list for sugar and adjust the recipe's sugar accordingly.

Can I make chestnut puree from fresh chestnuts?

Yes, and it tastes best, but peeling them is genuinely tedious. Score an X in the flat side of each, roast at 425F (220C) for twenty minutes or boil for twenty-five, then peel while still hot, since the inner skin clings once they cool. Then simmer in milk and blend as above. For most recipes, vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts get you ninety percent of the way with none of the work.

Related substitutes

More baking substitutes

Chestnut Puree substitute

Other chestnut puree substitutes

2Cooked mashed sweet potato with sugar and butter

3Pureed cannellini or butter beans with sugar and vanilla

4Canned pumpkin puree with sugar and vanilla

5Almond paste thinned with cream

6Chestnut flour cooked into a paste