What is Gram Flour?

Gram flour is one of my newest and favouritest (is that a word?) flours to cook with.

I was first introduced to it a few years back by a friend whose Persian mother was kind enough to teach me some of her delicious, traditional middle eastern recipes. 


What is it?

Gram flour is usually described a chickpea flour, but if you take a look at the ingredients on the packet of any of the brands you can buy, most also contain a percentage of yellow lentil flour too. It's a highly versatile flour made from pulses that has many uses.


Where can I buy Gram flour?

It's easier to get hold of than you might think. Pop into your local Asian food store, or if you don't have one nearby, the bigger supermarkets here in the UK normally stock it in their Indian/Asian food aisle. Failing that, you can always order some online from specialist food retailers or on Amazon.


What is it used for?

Being made from pulses rather than grains, this flour is higher in protein than your regular wheat flour, but also has a few properties that are advantageous when cooking.

Gluten Free Baking

Since going wheat free, I've been working to find tummy-friendly alternatives that taste good and have the correct texture. I've found that wheat flour can be replaced quite successfully by gram flour for many cakes and bakes.

Gram flour may require you to add a little extra liquid to cake recipes, but unlike most of the other gluten free flours available, it does not require the common additive xanthan gum to hold it together. Baking with gram flour makes a spongy texture with good structural integrity, and I have to say I have only praise for it!

You may find that baking with gram flour requires some extra baking powder and possibly a little extra sweetening, but you can easily adjust that to your personal taste.

I've also experimented with adding a proportion of gram flour to gluten free breads, and it certainly makes for a nicer loaf that not only toasts better but also has a more bread-like and less rice/potato like texture.

Egg Replacer

Gram flour can be very successfully used as a vegan egg replacer, as it has good binding qualities. It also naturally has a slightly eggy taste to it.

Traditional Recipes

There are of course countless traditional Asian recipes using gram flour that simply aren't the same if you try to substitute with wheat flour. 

You will find some of these peppered (if you'll pardon the pun) throughout the blog - I'm a huge fan of Asian cooking and I hope that gram flour will soon become a firm favourite of yours too!


You can even make your own!

And to top it off, if you can't easily get hold of gram flour, another option is to make your own. All you need are dried chick peas and a high powered blender or grinder.

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