Besan (Chickpea Flour) Pastry

Daydream's Note:

This is such a healthy pastry, and has a nutty savoury taste. I use it for all kinds of vegetarian pies and tarts, either as the shell, or as the pastry top/lid.

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 large p ...

• 1 1/2 cups besan flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup cold water (up to 1/2 cup)

Directions:

1. Whizz the flour and salt together in a food processor.
2. With the motor running, add the olive oil and process until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
3. Add just enough water to form a malleable, slightly sticky dough.
4. Roll out the pastry as needed on a floured board, or between two pieces of cling wrap.
5. To bake a bind (before adding a filling): prick all over the pastry with a fork, cover the pastry with a layer of foil and place either pastry weights or some dry beans or rice on the foil. Bake at 180C for 15 minutes, remove from oven, take off the foil and leave to cool, before proceeding with the filling of your choice.

Reviews

[stc _raissanne]

this recipe calls for way too much water. use maybe 1/4. I got a gooey sticky mess. silly me because i am pretty good at making wheat pastry, this was my first time with ceci/channa/besan flour.
it did taste pretty good though.

[the80srule]

Epic win! I used this to make Pumpkin Empanada and the two flavors together were just amazing. I'm keeping Georgiapea's review in mind if I use this to make something sweeter. Totally not flaky and messy at all! And I had no clue what a pastry was so I took a chance in my ghetto convection oven with the time adjusted downward and voila, perfection.

[Georgiapea]

I've had besan (gram) flour for some time now, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it. I marked this page about a month ago and have finally had a chance to try it out. I made it for a sweet dish so I used butter and cut the salt to half and added a bit of sugar. So, I did change things, but thought I would report anyway. It was very good. It's not flaky/short like regular flour pastry crust, but it's really really tasty. I would HIGHLY recommend this if you have a gluten allergy and even if you don't! (I don't). I did par-bake it, but without pastry weights, which was fine. Great great great! Yum.