A Marvelous New Recipe

We celebrated Tuan's birthday on Friday (it's actually today--happy birthday Tuan!) with a small gathering of friends. Johnny's party was on Saturday--I baked a LOT this week! This was a week of culinary and artistic highs. I made a fun book for a friend that allowed me to flex my rusty graphic design muscles, I baked a strawberry pie with the most successful pastry crust EVER (for me). The Settlers of Catan inspired cookies for Tuan's party--not so hot. They tasted fine, but my skills with tinting frosting leave much to be desired.

I needed another dessert to serve at the party and felt adventurous. At least two of the invitees had gluten allergies/issues, so I thought it would be fun to try something gluten free. This recipe turned up: Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake. I had all the ingredients on hand and decided to try it.

It turned out marvelously! It was deep, rich, and full of chocolate! As usual, I played with the recipe--'cause I'm self destructive like that. I substituted palm sugar for the white, cane sugar it called for. I noticed that it didn't make me sleepy afterwards like a lot of sugary desserts. If you try it and decide to use dark, or more bittersweet chocolate, increase the butter a bit to help it melt.

Here's my version:

Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350
Ideally, bake this in a non-stick springform pan. Alternatively, butter and dust with cocoa the sides and bottom of an 8 or 9 inch round cake pan.

Ingredients

1 16 oz can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
4 eggs
3/4 cup palm sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1.5 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp butter

Drain and rinse chickpeas. Place in the bowl of food processor, fitted with steel blade. Add eggs and process until smooth. Add the sugar and baking powder. Pulse to blend.

Melt butter and chocolate in a dry bowl--either in the microwave, in a double boiler or very carefully over low heat. Make sure that no water gets in the bowl or the chocolate could seize, or that you don't overheat the chocolate, lest it scorch.

Add the chocolate to the chickpea mixture and process until it's fully incorporated. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for approximately 40 minutes. The cake should be set--firm around the edges, slighty soft in the middle. If you stick a clean knife or skewer in the middle it will not come out clean, but moist and crumby.

I'm looking forward to trying some more variations of this cake: maybe some espresso in it, some caramel on top--it's scrumdiddlyumptious!