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23.09.2026
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In the region where I grew up, we have vermicelles every autumn. Vermicelles is a Swiss dessert made from puréed chestnuts. The chestnut purée is traditionally pressed through a vermicelles press and served with cream and meringue. The French name translates to "little worms," which is quite fitting when you look at their typical shape.
Since there were no sweet chestnuts in our forests, we had to buy our vermicelli.
When I moved to southern Germany, we collected chestnuts and made vermicelli from them in the very first autumn. There are chestnut trees everywhere here. One stands right outside our kitchen window.
Isn't that wonderful?
Sweet chestnuts fresh from the tree! What we have already done with it:
Roasted chestnuts with red cabbage, baked chestnuts with oven vegetables, chestnut flour for muesli. And my favorite: vermicelles.
Make your own vermicelli: Simple recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of chestnuts
- 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
- 2 dl water,
- 75 g sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
And here are the instructions:
Use a knife to score a cross on the curved side of the chestnuts. Cook in boiling water for 4 to 6 minutes. Strain and peel as hot as possible. The peel is much easier to remove when it is still hot and moist. If possible, also remove the furry inner skin. This inner skin does not fit into a dessert because of its bitter taste.
Roast the peeled chestnuts in a frying pan with coconut oil.
Bring the sugar, water and vanilla pod to the boil in a saucepan and let it steep.
Put everything in a bowl and puree.
We freeze some and eat the rest fresh. Traditionally, the paste is pressed through a press and served with cream and meringue. We often eat our vermicelles as a block with vanilla ice cream.
Even easier: chestnuts from the oven
If that's too time-consuming - here is the easiest chestnut recipe ever:
- Collect chestnuts
- to wash
- scratch a cross on the curved side with a knife
- bake (maybe together with oven vegetables)
Can you buy vermicelli in Germany?
In Switzerland, you can find ready-made vermicelli or chestnut puree almost everywhere in autumn. In Germany, on the other hand, I've hardly found any. Anyone who can find chestnut puree or frozen/pre-cooked chestnuts, from which they can make vermicelli themselves, is lucky.
By the way, you can't buy vermicelli at Baumbad. But we do have vermicompost. It's not vermicelli, but it also involves worms: it's Worm compost, which is ideally suited for the care of trees and other plants.
Do you like tree-based recipes? Then try these too! Bündner nut cake, our Plum Chutney or Elderflower syrup.
Or perhaps you'd be interested in the article The best edible trees for the garden: fruit, nuts & more from your own harvest.
Do you want more tree knowledge?
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Great idea, easy handling and everything from ordering to delivery.
Michael K.
