Chickpea bread

This recipe replaces half of the flour with chickpeas. It also uses a very small amount of yeast, so it’s handy if you’re running low on either. The result is a soft, moist golden-coloured bread.

This recipe was published in April 2020 as part of the Real Bread Campaign's #LockdownLoafers initiative.

PS - If you have created a gluten-free recipe for Real Bread (ie no xanthan gum, additives, baking powder etc.) made with chickpeas that you’d be happy for us to publish, please email it, and your own 1200x800 pixel photo of it) to us.

Ingredients

Makes one small loaf

1 x 400g tin of chickpeas (approx. 230-240g drained weight)
250g Strong/bread, or plain, flour (white, brown or wholemeal)
220-250g Water straight from the tap
4g Fresh (or 1-2g / ½ tsp fast acting*) yeast
5-6g Salt (about one level 5ml teaspoon)

*Read the label and avoid those that contain any additives.

Method

Drain the chickpeas and retain the liquid. Blitz the chickpeas and 150g of the liquid using a blender or food processor, or mash them with a fork or mortar and pestle.

Weigh the water in a bowl and stir in the salt and yeast until dispersed, then mix in the flour and blended chickpeas. There’s no need to knead – you can stop once you have a shaggy dough but there’s no dry flour left.

Cover the bowl (eg with a carrier bag that you can reuse again and again) and leave to rest for half an hour or so.

Scoop the dough out of the bowl with a wetted dough scraper, or your hand, stretch it and fold it in half, then repeat this action once or twice more. You can find videos demonstrating how online. Place the dough back in the bowl and cover again.

Leave at room temperature to prove/rise. Depending on what temperature your room is (mine was about 20-21°C when I did tests of this bread) this might be four to six hours. During this time, repeat the stretch and fold action every now and then. You could do it hourly or every other hour, but doesn’t have to be that often.

Shape the dough however you like eg for an oiled tin, banneton, or free-standing on an oiled baking tray. Again, the internet is full of how-to videos. Cover and leave for two or three hours until it’s fully risen.

Heat the oven (with a baking stone or tray in place if you’re proving dough in a banneton) to about 220°C.

Turn out the dough if proved in a banneton, dust the top with flour, if you like, and/or slash it with a lame/grignette or murderously sharp knife and put straight into the oven.

Bake for about 45 minutes, turning the heat down to about 200°C.after the first 15 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool before slicing – bread can be gummy and lose a lot of moisture if you cut when hot.

Substitutions

If you have some hummus nearing its use-by day, use that to replace some, or all of the chickpeas. Depending on how loose the hummus is, you'll need to use up to 150ml of water with it.

In answer any ‘can I…’ questions about swapping or adding ingredients, adjusting times, weights and temperature, the answer is yes, you can. Every tweak you make leads to different results. Seek out those different recipes or experiment for yourself and, if you come up with a bread you love, please share it and your tips on social media!

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Recipe © Chris Young / www.realbreadcampaign.org

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the copyright holder.

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Social sharing

If you make this, please share your photo(s) with the world on social media using #RealBread and other relevant hashtags, linking back to this recipe. Better still if we can see you in the photo, too: #WeAreRealBread!

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