Gram flour recipies?

[pennyplainknits]

I bought (by mistake) a bag of gram (chickpea) flour, and now I have no idea what to do with it! I bake a lot but the fact that it is gluten free makes me nervous. Short of making a million chapattis, what can I make?

Comments

[acelightning]

Pakoras. You make a thin batter out of the gram flour, water, and various Indian spices (anything from plain pepper to curry powder to garam masala, and you don't have to make it "authentically" hot if you don't want to!). Dip bite-size pieces of vegetables, chicken, paneer, prawns, even slices of banana, into the batter and deep-fry until crisp. Serve immediately with chutneys, raitas, and other appropriate dipping sauces.

[copracat]

:) I was just about to comment: Batter ALL the things. Yum.

[pennyplainknits]

Thank you! Who doesn't love a bit of deep fat frying?

[acelightning]

"If it ain't fried, it ain't food" ;-D

[amalnahurriyeh]

Socca!

I actually think chickpea flour is no good for GF baking, because whatever you make tastes inevitably of falafel, and that's not a note I want in my chocolate cake, yanno? Best to work with what you've got, rather that try to hide it.

[feuervogel]

I made a chocolate cake with canned chickpeas once. It didn't taste like falafel, amazingly.

[amalnahurriyeh]

You know, I can actually see that? Because the canned version is actually more mild than the flour. Were they pureed and added to the batter with, like, the eggs? *has structural thoughts about baking*

[feuervogel]

The whole thing was made in a blender. (recipe) It's surprisingly good.

[metawidget]

I find subbing gram flour in for regular flour is a terrible mistake, anyway — I find it kind of bitter and almost metallic that way. Stuff that is intended to be made with gram doesn't suffer from that, though.

[amalnahurriyeh]

I actually avoid "gf flour mixes" that are largely/mainly bean flour, because of that bitter/metallic thing. Not just chickpea/gram flour, but fava bean flour, black bean flour, whatever. It works fine in lots of contexts--om nom nom pakoras, etc--but trying to make western baked goods from it just doesn't taste right.

[pennyplainknits]

That looks yummy, thank you!

[via_ostiense]

socca! There's also an Italian chickpea fritter thing (similar to fried polenta, except made with chickpea flour).

[via_ostiense]

Panelle is what I was thinking of.

[loligo]

Here's a quick and tasty recipe from Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking:

Eggless French Toast with Herbs

Combine the following batter ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until well-combined:

!/3 c. gram flour
2-4 chilies
1/4 c. cilantro
one slice fresh ginger, peeled
2 T. chopped onion
1/4 c. tofu or paneer
3/4 c. water
1/2 t. salt

Batter can be kept in fridge up to three days before making the french toast.

Dip slices of sandwich bread in the batter and fry in butter on a very hot griddle.

[pennyplainknits]

Thank you! I will keep that in mind for breakfast when feeding vegans!

[laughingrat]

Haven't tried them myself, but there's Chickpea flour fries.

[pennyplainknits]

Hmmm interesting, thank you!

[somewhatbent]

Gingerbread pancakes :-)

Use ~1/3 gram:2/3 AP flour in muffins (sweet or savory) or quick breads with baking soda in the leavening. (soda reduces the bitter/metallic taste) You can add gluten and use it in recipes that require some elasticity -- make sure you let it rest for a few hours, overnight is better. Season as desired and use for crust on oven-baked chicken, chops or fish.

I know there are a bunch more, but would need to hunt up in (presently packed) recipes. It's been a cookoff ingredient in a number of venues I've seen recipes I would never have imagined.

[pennyplainknits]

Thank you for your suggestion! What's AP flour? Is it a brand?

[somewhatbent]

AP = All Purpose, plain, not self rising.

[the_antichris]

My flatmate used to make Indian-style corn fritters - take a regular corn fritter recipe, use water instead of milk and gram flour instead of wheat flour, and add cumin, coriander, turmeric, chopped green chilli and coriander leaves (US: cilantro). Not a million miles from the bhaji concept, but thicker batter and shallow-fried.

It would probably work with any quickly cooked vegetable, but we liked corn.

[pennyplainknits]

Thanks, I will keep that in mind :D

[nitoda]

Onion bhajees ... http://www.hub-uk.com/foodpages12/recip0590.htm

[pennyplainknits]

Thank you, bhajis seem to be a popular suggestion!

Gram flour recipes

[(Anonymous)]

Gram flour can be used in GF recipes without bitterness being a factor if you bake the flour first. Spread 1 - 2 cups of flour on a cookie sheet and bake on medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. The first time you pull it out of the oven a strong unpleasant smell will come up. By the end of the 15 minutes, that smell will be gone and your flour is ready to cool and use. It will clump, so sift it or stir well with a fork.