Chickpea Flour

A simple method for homemade chickpea flour (garbanzo bean flour) – an excellent gluten-free flour option for a wide variety of your baking needs.

Learning how to make chickpea flour is incredibly simple, and it can then be used for your delicious gluten-free baked goods and a variety of comfort foods.

I absolutely love making things from scratch and knowing exactly what is inside.

It also makes you appreciate the food that you’re putting into your body even more – knowing that you have made these ingredients personally.

Plus it is much cheaper than buying chickpeas flour at the supermarket. I never really understood why are they so expensive.

Good to know

Gluten-free flours often need slightly different amounts within a recipe. For example, substitute 1 cup regular flour for 3/4 cup chickpea flour;
We don’t use cooked beans for this, because we will cook the flour in whatever recipe it is used in, the chickpeas don’t need to be pre-cooked;
I’ll often soak enough chickpeas so I can use some for chickpea flour and will then cook some and freeze them for meals (saving the cooking liquid to use as aquafaba). Since you are working on the ingredient is good to save time thinking in another options ahead.
One great advise is to always label your jars or containers, soon you will forget what is inside and get confused.

How to make chickpea flour?

The only ingredient you will need is dried chickpeas

Some people directly grind the store-bought dried chickpeas into flour.Probably not a good option since the chickpeas usually are never washed before packaging and could be sprayed with nasty chemicals to prolong their shelf life.

Cooking will remove and kill the germs, but it is better if they are not in the chickpeas before processing the chickpeas into flour.

However, if you are buying organic chickpeas that aren’t sprayed with any pesticide, then this method is a super-quick.

Simple, place your chickpeas in a coffee/spice grinder or high-speed blender, and grind them into a fine powder.

Sieve the flour, to remove any larger lumps, and then you can re-grind these too.

Once is ready, store your chickpea flour in an airtight container for up to two months.

This option is a longer process but safer in my opinion, making sure that the chickpeas are cleaned and soaked, before being dried and ground into flour. This will make sure there’s no pesticide residue on the chickpeas and soaking is also said to increase their nutritional value and are easier digested.

First, rinse your dried chickpeas.

Then, soak them overnight (minimum of 8 hours, and you can go up to 24 hours). Make sure to cover them with enough water (usually a few inches of water above the chickpeas) as they will expand 2-3 times their size.

Once soaked, drain the water.

Now we need to dry the chickpeas. Place them on a large tray (a baking sheet or dehydrator tray will work). Make sure to place them in a single layer, instead of overlapping them; otherwise, the drying process can take far longer.

You can let them dry out in a sunny warm spot or dry them in the dehydrator or oven at 50ºC for 12 hours.

When the chickpeas are completely dry, grind them.

You can blend them in a high-speed food processor/blender or grind them to a fine flour in a spice grinder. I don't have a grinder and my food processor is on its end of life. So, I had to sieve twice and repeat the process.

Once ready, transfer to an airtight jar of your choosing and store for up to two months.