This delectable spread is a favorite in France. Made by cooking the chestnuts with sugar and vanilla, it is excellent on toast and because of its thick and smooth texture, it also goes well with ice cream or yogurt. Some use it in place of chestnut puree to make a mont blanc (french dessert made of pureed chestnuts and whipped cream, often on a meringue base). Of course, you may also find yourself eating it straight from the jar. Once widespread in France, chestnut trees, or chataigniers, are now becoming scarce as land has been given over to more profitable crops like grapes. Today the number of regions producing chestnuts has dwindled - ardeche, corsica, and limousin are now the principal producers of chestnuts.
