Savoury cake with chickpea flour and chorizo

I'm getting hooked on this blog... another addiction, ooooh.


For the wonderful "merienda" (*) of last saturday I made two savoury cakes, a very common dish in some areas of France. People here are always surprised when I bake this kind of cake because it's not known at all in Spain. I found the recipes in a little French book on "cakes", they give them the English name in France, this one. Sorry, it's in french of course, I haven't been able to find any translation. One of the recipes is made with... ¡chickpea flour! Yes, it caught my eye when I read the book. Before falling asleep I usually read cookbooks instead of best-sellers, it's wicked of me, I know.

These savoury cakes can be eaten cold, slightly warmed in the oven or even sliced and toasted. In French "boulangeries" they are sold in wedges or slices... yummy.

To cut a long story short, I chose the chickpea flour and chorizo cake and also another one with cheese, hazelnuts and green olives for my "merienda"... Chickpea flour is more widely used in Andalusia than in the bleak dry plateau where I live... It is used there to coat fish and shellfish before frying it and also for the incredible "tortitas de camarones", a kind of crispy pancake made with tiny shrimps. Surprisingly enough this post includes another gluten-free recipe. Here's the recipe for the first cake:

Savoury cake with chickpea flour and spicy chorizo

• 200g (7oz) chickpea flour (organic is best!)
• 4 eggs (organic too if possible)
• 10cl olive oil (Spanish is best :-))
• 10cl milk
• 4 tsp baking powder
  
• 100g (3.5oz) spicy chorizo (the best you can find, it really makes a difference)
  
• Salt (I put two generous pinches)
• Herbes de Provence (I forgot them, getting old)

Heat the oven to 170 ºC (340ºF, slightly more if your oven is not convection-type). Mix the eggs, oil and milk and add the sieved flour with the baking powder. Mix well and add the salt and herbs to your taste. And lastly add the diced chorizo.

Pour the mixture in a buttered and floured loaf pan. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes (be careful, maybe less is needed, mine came out a bit dry, keep an eye on it). This cake tends to develop a crust very quickly, so the recipe suggests to cut the surface with a knife after 15 minutes (don't worry, it doesn't deflate, at least mine didn't).

After 40 minutes you can check if it's done with a knife or any other sharp kitchen tool. If the knife comes out clean, the cake can be taken out of the oven and be left to cool in the pan.

Even though the cake picture is rather... eeeh... poor, you can see it shows a very spring-like yellow color... nice. I don't think the chickpea flour gave it a very sharp or special taste, at least I don't really notice it. In fact I have found at some websites sweet cake recipes with chickpea flour, like these brownies. I've got to try them some day.

If you bake the cake in advance I advise you to reheat it a bit before eating or even better, slice it and toast it. This really makes it release its aroma...

(*) Merienda is Spanish for end-of-afternoon-beginning-of-evening-snack which turns into some extravagantly copious meal when you gather friends or relatives or both. Typical Spanish, to stuff yourself I mean.