Pancakes!!!

Ok, I can only go for so long without wanting to eat something similar in texture to wheat bread or wheat products.  After discovering Chickpea flour (split chickpea variety), I was on board and ready to launch operation PANCAKE.  Oh yes, I was on top of that and you know it too!

I found a recipe online from The Wannabe Chef
It is a basic recipe and I pretty much enjoyed really getting to bite into something with that old familiar texture.  Sure, they were not as light and fluffy as pancakes made from wheat, but I was SO HAPPY with them anyway.

The first time making them I used Truvia in place of the sugar and served them topped with raw honey bought locally.  The second round of making them I added cinnamon and used sugar because I ran out of Truvia.

In some respects they do remind me of whole wheat pancakes because the chickpea flour gives them a bit of flavor whereas regular white wheat flour is bland and tasteless which causes one to rely on syrup or butter for flavor.

I will be making more chickpea flour pancakes and tweaking them as I go.
I LOVED to eat sweet potato pancakes and oh yeah... that is just a matter of time before I give that a go!  I suspect it will be good.  I also want to play around more with the cinnamon, other spices.  There is so much you can do with pancakes!  I will most likely take the leap into savory pancakes with this flour.  YUM!

I encourage you to go out pick up some chickpea flour and get cooking!  I will be tweaking and sharing  in the future.  Enjoy the photos (they do not show the cinnamon pancakes).

Skillet + Butter + Batter = Happiness!!!

 

Happily surprised by their texture!

Topped with local honey and yummy!

Wheat Belly Bread

I was so excited to see that Dr. Davis, author of Wheat Belly, had a bread recipe out that I could use my chickpea flour with.  I found it on the Dr. Oz website titled Wheat Belly Bread.

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed.  Not by the flavor, but by the texture.  It was a bit crumbly.  

I was hoping it would be a little more "breadlike" then what I took out of the oven.  I know it was my first crack at making it and I have to also admit that the stove in the apartment is kind of a relic and temperamental.  I didn't even leave it in the oven for the full time the recipe said!  If I attempt this recipe again in the future, I will probably shave off a few minutes of cook time while I am using this oven.

I really was hoping for something to use to make sandwiches that I could make in a loaf pan.  Well, there are a lot of things out there to try and on to something else!

Enjoy the photos.  Give it a go yourself, the flavor is good.  

I used Watkins Pure Ground Cinnamon which blows regular cinnamon away in flavor.  So there are notes of the cinnamon when I eat this bread.  It makes me want to slap some butter on it!  

 Looking down as I patted it into the loaf pan

 Side view before going into the oven

After cooking you can see it cracked and is a bit crumbly

Cross section of the bread

Blueberry Muffins!

I've made this recipe from the book Wheat Belly by Dr. Davis a couple of times and I really do like it as is, but this time around I wanted to see what would happen if I substituted 1/2 the almond meal with Chickpea flour also known as Besan Flour.

Dr. Davis says Garbanzo Bean Flour is a "safe" flour to use but it barely made his list.  I discovered a Chickpea flour made from the Chana Dal bean.  This bean is suppose to be far better then the garbanzo bean ( GI index and Carb content ) so I decided to use it instead of the garbanzo bean flour.  Now... if you look into it, it can really make your head spin because they are both a form of chickpea, but Chana Dal seems to be the way to go!

So I've decided to play around with my new Chickpea flour ( aka: Besan, Gram ).  It will be more cost effective then using all almond flour.  

The Original Recipe for Banana Blueberry Muffins

Makes 10-12 muffins

2 cups ground almond meal  ( I used 1 cup almond meal & 1 cup chickpea flour )

1/4 cup ground flaxseeds

Sweetener equivalent to 3/4 cup sucrose  ( I use Truvia )

1 teaspoon baking powder

Dash of fine sea salt

1 ripe banana

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream OR coconut milk  ( I used coconut milk from a carton )

1/4 cup walnut oil, coconut oil, or extra-light olive oil

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease muffin tin with oil.

Combine the almond meal, ground flaxseeds, sweetener, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and mix with a spoon.

In another bowl, mash the banana until smooth.  Stir in eggs, sour cream or coconut milk, and oil.  Add the banana mixture to the almond meal mixture and mix thoroughly.  Fold in the blueberries.

Spoon batter into the muffin cups filling them halfway.  Bake until toothpick inserted comes out dry.  About 45 mins.  Cool in the pans for 10-15 minutes then transfer to cooling racks.

Below is the muffin I just made with 1/2 Almond Meal and 1/2 Chickpea Flour.  I kept all the other ingredients the same and did not change a thing.

Muffin made from original recipe above (photo taken a couple months ago)

In sum, I felt that the new Almond/Besan flour version may have been a little on the dry side compared to the memory of the one I made a few months ago.  Although I only felt like that with the muffins that had fewer berries in them.  They did however pass the "Hubby Test" and he gave me a thumbs up.  I will be making these muffins again in the future weather it be the original or modified version.  Who knows, I just might make them both and then taste test them in comparison.  I realize now that I should have done that in the first place!

Next time:  Chickpea Pancakes!!!!