SDMB Bakers: how would you improve Castagnaccio

Cafe Society
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A castagnaccio is a traditional Northern Italian, well, baked good – not quite a cake or a bread, because its ingredients are very simple. This gives it a particular texture, which is something of an acquired taste. I’ve made it before, and its OK, but I’d like to improve it, slightly, while still keeping its character. Here’s a recipe, but you can Google for others, they’re all pretty much the same – http://www.tuscanfoodie.com/2011/01/castagnaccio-chestnut-flour-cake-recipe.html or if you have a decent internet connection (I often don’t) try this image heavy page: Castagnaccio and The Town of Tagliacozzo in Abruzzo

You can see, its chestnut flour, water and olive oil, and baked. I’ve made recipes like this before. The cake rises only slightly, and the texture is often very tough. Obviously, I don’t want to just bake a cake. I could just follow an standard recipe for that. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking of adding 1 egg yolk, just to make it a little smoother. I don’t think I want to substitute butter for part of the olive oil, that would make it too cake-like. But maybe a partial substitution is a good idea. I feel like I shouldn’t use a leavening agent, but maybe that is needed for a softer texture. Using the bare minimum of baking powder to rise it, slightly. But it does need to have a crackly top.

Any other experiments I should try?

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OK, everyone hates people who bump their own threads, but with no responses at all, and with this posing being rolled off the first page, I’m getting a little desperate. So, new question:

Can anyone name a favorite board of theirs that I can join, where baking and food chemistry are discussed. So I can ask this same question again over there.

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The thing is, there is no gluten in chestnuts to form the framework for leavening to actually work.

Hm, the sort of leathery texture is what you are going to get with those ingredients. Egg yolk is just another emulsificant like the olive oil or butter. Butter would not add any more cakelike texture to it, that would take wheat flour [or just the gluten]

So, you want a less leathery texture, you need to add a texturizer. More or different oil [butter might adversely change the taste] may make it go oozy, though you could change the flavor profile by swapping the olive oil out for walnut or hazlenut oil. Something like guar gum, cornstarch, rice flour as texturizers would change the texture. I would try starting with the cornstarch first, for ease of purchase followed by the rice starch. I think you might be able to get guar gum online the easiest.