Leo and Kate Approved Chickpea Flatbread

I was going to reuse the blogpost title "Chick-chick-chick It Out" for this, but decided it was too soon. We're only 14 posts in. No, this isn't about chicken. It's about chickpeas. Well, Chickpea flour. Err... garbanzo bean flour. 

You know I've tried almond flour, coconut flour, and now it was time for garbanzo bean flour. There might've been more experimentation too... but that's what comes to mind so far. Chickpea flour is pretty awesome in that it can be used to make... wait for it... Chickpea Flatbread or Pitas. Seriously. Check it out on Pinterest, there's a million (exaggerate much?) pins about "Authentic Italian/Persian/Indian etc Flatbread/Pita/Taco/etc" and there's about 100 different names for them. Trust me, I checked it out. I used this recipe (look there for more detailed instructions! and more gorgeous photos!), but I'll be buying more flour and trying out a few more. 

These are awesome. And there are only 4 ingredients:

- 2.5c Chickpea flour or Garbanzo Bean flour or Gram (all the same thing, AFAIK)

- 3.5c cold water

- 1/4c extra virgin olive oil 

- salt/pepper to taste 

Alright so maybe that's 5 ingredients, but who's counting?

The only bummer is that once you mix the ingredients together (I mixed them all together, but just realized while I was re-reading that original blog post that the oil is supposed to be used later, whoops), you have to let it sit for 3 freaking hours (yep, the length of Titanic) on the counter. I was wary so I covered it with plastic wrap but maybe you don't have to. [Update: Good news, folks! I added in the oil when I did it because I actually followed this recipe with much more concise instructions, not the one I previously linked to! We're trying the same recipe over again right now with that first link's oil trick. I'll let you know if it's any different.]

You should know that since 1997, I've used "How many times you can watch Titanic" as an estimate of how long anything 3 hours or longer will take. I'm totally serious. I don't always say it out loud, but I definitely think it. Especially at work: "Only 3 more Titanic viewings till I can go home!"

pre-salt & pepper

Pre-Titanic

So after you watch Titanic (I guess you could watch 3-4 episodes of Breaking Bad instead... or, like, actually do something productive...), you turn on the oven to 350*, skim off any foam that formed on the surface (yeah, I know), pour the oil into a large, rimmed cookie sheet (which I clearly did not do), and then pour the batter in so it's about 1/4" thick. Then you bake it for about 30 minutes or until golden brown (mine took quite a bit longer but that might be because of my oil mishap). And BAM. Just cut it and serve it up.  

I ate mine with hummus, because pita made of chickpeas just wasn't enough chickpeas. Duh.

I put the rest in Tupperware and it got kind of hard, but maybe if you heat it up it'd get softer? Who knows.... clearly not I. Winning major credibility points here.

(UPDATE #2: The second batch came out crispier along the edges, which were especially yummy. I've already eaten about half of the batch. I'm not sure if adding the olive oil vs. putting it in the pan first made any noticeable difference, but if you happen to experiment with the two methods, lemme know if you liked it better one way or the other...)