There’s no better way to celebrate Autumn than with hot, crispy-edged brown butter pancakes and chestnuts!  I’m sure you can feel it… The chill in the air, the leaves crunching under your feet and the sense that everything is ready to go to sleep. Autumn is my absolute favourite time of the year. Snuggly jerseys, copious cups of tea, ridiculous amounts of butter and fluffy socks. There’s also the promise of the Newlands forest floor being covered in mushrooms ready to be plucked – which is, to be honest, my only form of winter exercise. But while I was a tad too early for porcini, on my last forage I stumbled upon chestnuts – loads and loads of chestnuts.

They instantly reminded me of my trip of Italy a few years ago, where standing on a street corner in Venice, freezing cold, I scoffed two paper bags of chestnuts that had been toasted right in front of me over a fire made in a tin can. Casual for Italians, a revelation to me – mostly because my first taste of chestnuts as a child, had been a disaster. My dad had come home one day with an entire bag of prickly green balls and announced triumphantly that we would be toasting them! While much excitement ensued, our enthusiasm didn’t make up for the apparent lack of knowledge of just how to cook them – my mom threw them into the oven with the hard brown shell still on and so we all bit into teeth-breakingly hard nuts. If only Google was around then!

After that trip to Italy, where I realised that the shell had to be scored with a kiss (an X) before going into the oven, so that the chestnuts split open while roasting, releasing the creamy, sweet nut inside – I was hooked! After roasting you can turn them into a puree which is amazing on pavlovas, in between cakes, cookies or in this deliciously creamy ice cream. I’ve paired it with my favourite Autumn dessert, brown butter pancakes. Another revelation of frying ‘plain’ pancakes in brown butter to make the edges go all crispy (the best bit!). If you can’t find fresh chestnuts, use the tinned chestnut puree which you can find at most delis or online here. Otherwise, simply swap it out for any nut butter – think pecan, almond or cashew. And don’t skip the spiced caramelised nuts – they absolutely make the dish!