Socca: beautifully simple flatbread experiments

26 June 2012 by this is lemonade 6 Comments

Just over a week ago, I shared a couple of face mask recipes with you. I mentioned a tasty ingredient: gram flour which is made from chickpeas. Then last Wednesday, Amy of cozywalls posted a simple recipe for a gluten-free flatbread called socca. The ingredients were already in my store cupboard: salt, gram flour, water, olive oil. Most importantly, I had a bag of gram flour in my pantry that I only use very small quantities of from time to time – to make things to smear on my face. The star of the show for me was this magical flour. The recipe looked too easy to miss out on trying, so I jotted a quick note to myself before I went to bed and made it in the morning!

Amy uses a cast iron skillet which for now is still on my wishlist. So I lined a roasting tin that I thought would be big enough and preheated it in the oven before pouring in the light batter and sprinkling some dried dates on top. Amy used figs and onions, neither of which I had to hand, but the dates were a really successful alternative. Waiting the half hour or so for the deliciously nutty socca to bake made me so ravenous, I sliced up some lettuce and peppered honey roast ham to roll up in it with some grated cheese. It was absolutely delicious with or without the impromptu filling.

I can’t claim to have made anything authentic having never tasted socca before. However, I did some brief research afterwards and came across an informative post by David Lebovitz that you might also want to take a look at. After reading that post, and sleeping on it, I decided to try something a little different of my own. I won’t call it socca. But this is what I did:

Chickpea and Almond Flatbread

1/2 cup gram flour
1 tbsp ground almonds
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil, divided
Pinch of cumin
1 tbsp flaked almonds

Mix flour, ground almonds and salt together. Stir in water and 1/2 tbsp olive oil. Leave to sit at room temperature for at least an hour. I prepared this mixture after a slow lunch on Saturday and returned to it in the afternoon for a lovely snack.

Heat a pan on the hob until hot. Add 1/2 tbsp olive oil and add the bubbly batter which should pop and sizzle in the pan. Scatter flaked almonds over the top with a pinch of cumin. Fry on high heat for about 2 minutes then flip and cook for another 2 minutes or so until the flaked almonds become nicely toasted.

Serve immediately with some soft cheese, honey or anything you fancy! Let me know if you try your own experiment (really you must, it’s so simple!) and I’d be appreciative of any tips!