Let's talk about chickpeas.

Chickpeas are my new favorite ingredient. Sure, they make delicious hummus, but lately I've been experimenting with my own chickpea flour in cookies and cakes. People, dried chickpeas are like a dollar a bag. Compare that to the twelve dollars or so that you are spending on almond or coconut or spelt flour if you're trying to avoid gluten.

So, because of my new-found love of everything chickpea related, today I'm going to show you how to make your own chickpea flour to use in this chocolate cake recipe.

Let's get started.

Chickpea Flour

Ingredients:

1 cup dried chickpeas

water

Yeah, two ingredients. That's how simple this is.

There are two ways you can go about making your own chickpea flour. First of all, you can soak the chickpeas overnight. To do this, you will need to put the chickpeas in a bowl and cover them in water. Make sure the water covers a few inches over the top of the chickpeas, as they will absorb quite a bit.

Cover the bowl and set it in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

After the chickpeas have soaked overnight, take them out of the fridge and drain and remaining water.

Place the now puffy chickpeas in a medium saucepan, then cover with water again (maybe an inch or two above the tops) and boil until all of the water has evaporated. At this point, your chickpeas should be soft enough for the food processor.

The other option is to put the dried chickpeas directly into the medium sauce pan with water covering them. Bring the water to a boil, then turn the heat off, cover the chickpeas, and let them soak for an hour. After that, add more water to cover them again and then boil until all the water has evaporated.

Place the chickpeas in the food processor and let it run for about a minute or so. You might want to do half of the chickpeas and then the other half once those are done if your food processor is on the smaller side.

Note: You're not looking for the hummus consistency. You should only process until the mixture resembles corn meal. It won't be as soft as actual flour, but that's okay.

You should end up with about 2 1/2 cups of chickpea flour, and this is the exact amount you'll need for the chocolate cake.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups chickpea flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup coconut or vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, oil, sugar, and milk.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.

Grease an 8-inch round cake pan, and pour your batter into it.

Bake the cake for 27-30 minutes. You should be able to insert a toothpick in the middle and have it come out clean.

While your cake is cooling after the bake, go ahead and start in on your frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

5.5 oz goat cheese or cream cheese (about half a cup)

3 tbs peanut butter

4 tbs honey

1/2 cup powdered sugar

If you don't like the taste of goat cheese, then I suggest you don't top your cake with this frosting. In fact, the cake itself should be moist and sweet enough to not really need frosting if you don't want it.

If, however, you do like goat cheese and think this frosting could only add to the deliciousness of the cake, then proceed.

Beat your goat cheese until it is light and fluffy.

Add the peanut butter and honey, and beat the mixture again.

Finally, add the powdered sugar. This will change the consistency of the frosting. It will look glossier and be a bit runnier. Don't freak out. It's supposed to be this way.

If your cake is cool enough, top it with the icing. Then cut a slice and enjoy!