Does anyone else get serious excitement when they get to create recipes with a new ingredient??? Well, that’s me all over. And my new ingredient that has me jazzed is CHICKPEA FLOUR! Also know as gram flour! Recently, on a city break to Nice with my family, I got to try two foods made from chickpea flour – chickpea fries, and socca! Socca is a traditional chickpea flatbread (also can look like a crepe, or pancake!) made using chickpea flour, olive oil, water and a little salt (depending on the area!) and its unique to the south of France as a regional food – Nice in particular! I bought a Socca snack to try at the Nice Christmas Markets and literally swooned, foodie-style. I couldn’t stop talking about it, it was so delicious! So I decided there and then that when I got home to Ireland, I was going to make it my mission to find chickpea flour, and get creating with it!

I do intend to try my own flatbread recipes, and hopefully chickpea crackers and fries too! But to start, I went for a chocolate chip snack recipe, after the success of my Chocolate Series of recipes I’ve worked on in collaboration with Magic Mayan Chocolate. And the result? A beautiful new plant-based snack for you guys to try, flavoured with cacao and cinnamon, with a punch of protein and fibre from the chickpea flour!

Recipe (Makes 10-12 bars)

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp sweetener of choice (I use Meridian Foods Date Syrup)
• 1 tbsp whole chia seeds
• 2 tbsp cacao powder
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or you could use melted coconut oil!)
• 1 ripe banana, mashed until slightly liquid-like
• 100-130ml Milk of choice (I use Coconut Milk!)
• 150g Gram or Chickpea Flour
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (I use Magic Mayan Creamy Cashew 73% Dark Choc!)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175C (fan oven). Line a baking tray with tinfoil, and grease the tinfoil with a little olive oil to stop the bars sticking as they bake.
2. Take a large mixing bowl, and into it add the dry ingredients – chickpea flour, baking powder, cacao powder, chia seeds and cinnamon.
3. Mix the dry ingredients well, and then create a little well in the centre.
4. Add yout wet ingredients to the dry – 100ml milk, olive oil, sweetener of choice, mashed banana and vanilla extract.
5. Combine everything into a batter, and if the batter is a little dry, keep adding splashes of liquid as you need.
6. Finally, add your chocolate chips, and stir everything one more time to fold them in.
7. Transfer the batter to the baking tin, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes!
8. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before slicing up and chowing down!

Enjoy guys – I already love cooking with chickpea flour after just one recipe, so stay tuned for lots more to come! Tag me if you try this out – @theirishbalance on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook!

Ciara 🙂 x