Chickpea pancakes

There have been a lot of pancake recipes around over the past few days. Other, more organised bloggers remembered it was Shrove Tuesday yesterday and planned and pancake-d accordingly.

I'm not in that category.

These pancakes, you see, are from last week. Made with no thought of Shrove Tuesday whatsoever.

What's more, they were prompted by a sudden realisation regarding the best before date on this packet.

A 'best before' date of January 2012. Which, when discovered in February 2012, is perhaps not entirely convenient. Fortunately, it is well established that 'best before' is not the same as 'use by' and so I was determined to get at least one meal out of this before it really does pass its best.

I bought the besan flour last year after being inspired by various recipes for chickpea flour crackers and chickpea flour pancakes (also known as pudla). Most of these recipes are firmly in the savoury category, often with vegetables or spices included in the mixture. Last week I wanted something plainer, more like a regular pancake base, and so those bookmarked savoury recipes remain bookmarked for another day.

You see, I grew up with the tradition of having dessert pancakes for dinner once or twice a year. This was often a holiday treat, or done on a weekend when we'd already had a substantial lunch. I was in the mood for this last week, and wanted my chickpea pancakes to provide a blank canvas for whatever fillings I came up with, sweet or savoury.

In the end, this super easy recipe from Food and Wine provided my base. I effectively just halved their recipe and omitted the pepper, to give 1 cup besan flour, 1 cup + 2 tbsp water, and a pinch of salt. I used spray oil to coat the frying pan rather than adding oil to the mixture. These quantities gave three large pancakes.

I find pancakes surprisingly filling, so started off with two of the three. 

The first two were flavoured with tahini and plain nonfat yoghurt (my nod to a savoury filling), and maple syrup. Both were enjoyable, and the tahini / yoghurt one particularly so.

It turns out, though, that chickpea pancakes are deceptively light. Or at least, they were to me.

After the first two pancakes, I felt hungry enough to finish the third one with strawberry jam. About 15 minutes after the third one, though, I realised that perhaps two would have been just fine. These definitely have the traditional pancake trick of expanding after they are in one's stomach!

Looking at the nutritional information for besan gave me some insight into this experience. Although besan flour and plain flour are similar in terms of overall energy (about 380 calories per 100g), besan flour has twice as much protein: approximately 22g per 100g vs. 11g per 100g in plain flour.

Fullness and nutritional information aside, I was really happy with these. They are not traditional pancakes and I can see that they would be better suited to savoury flavourings - I will definitely be trying that in the future. They have a slight earthy taste, with a depth of flavour that defies the short ingredient list, and would also pair well with soup or stews.

All in all, I'm glad I got to the flour before it truly was past its best!

Have you experimented with besan flour?

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