Saturday, May 21, 2011

La Socca with Lemon Thyme - Garbanzo Bean Flour Crepe


Until picking up the Williams-Sonoma Savoring Appetizers I had never heard of these little cakes originating in Nice, France.  I am rather surprised that with so many people having trouble digesting gluten that these crepes haven't received more love.  From what I've read, if you go to Southern France you can buy them on the streets from vendors fresh out of the oven. It also seems that when available they are cooked in a brick pizza style oven.
Traditional soccas are garbanzo bean flour, salt, oil and water served immediately out of the oven dusted with pepper.  Last week I picked up a lemon thyme plant that I have been dieing to use so I opted to throw it in and dusted the finished crepe with lemon pepper and a bit of Himalayan salt.  This recipe is so versatile that you could easily play with different herbs. We ate it with our meal but I think it would go great with Hummus or any other dips or just chow it down by itself.  It was super easy and my family loved it.
One note of warning is that you want to make sure your pan has a flat bottom. Mine is old and has dips so it came out unevenly cooked.  It also doesn't help that I probably have the worst oven ever made and it isn't level so the batter slipped to one side. Hey, if I could pull it off under these less than perfect circumstances anyone should be able to do it!

1 3/4 cup water
1 1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
3tbs + 1 tbs olive oil
fresh lemon thyme leaves-about 1/2 tsp
1 tsp salt
Lemon Pepper

Pour water in a large bowl.  Whisk in flour 1/2 cup at a time making sure there are no clumps.  Whisk in 3 tbs olive oil, thyme and salt.  Don't worry, batter is very watery, similar to a soy milk consistency.

When you are ready to cook move oven rack so it is approximately 5 inches from broiler.  Place a heavy duty, 12" X 16" baking sheet in oven.  Preheat oven with pan in it to 500 degrees F (my oven took 18 minutes to preheat.) Once oven is preheated take out pan and spread 1 tbs olive oil over it. Pour batter in pan and move around so it is even (should be about 1/8" thick.)  Turn on broiler to high and place pan back in.  Ok, so everything I read said to cook for 2-3 minutes.  It needs to be golden brown slightly charred in spots.  Once again, my oven leaves a lot to be desired and it took 6 minutes to get it to this point.  The pieces that weren't as thoroughly cooked were not as good but were not inedible.  Point being, watch it closely so it doesn't over cook but don't stress if your oven takes a little longer.

Once it is cooked, immediately dust with lemon pepper and salt, slice, remove from pan and serve!

                                                                      Lemon Thyme

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this recipe! Sounds fantastic. I've ordered some chickpea flour especially to make these babies. Will let you know how they turn out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can't wait to hear what you think! My family loved it.

    ReplyDelete