Chickpea fudge is a buttery, sweet, biscuit-like slice made with chickpea flour, icing sugar, spices and ghee, also known as chana magaj.
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If you’ve never heard of chickpea fudge before, then don’t worry, join the club! I first came across the treat when my friends over at Natura Sugars challenged me to do my own spin on it. Now, the word ‘chickpea’ doesn’t do this fudge any favours, but forget what you thought about chickpeas (remember these revolutionary egg-free macarons made with chickpea water?), because this fudge is AMAZING!
Made with just ghee, chickpea flour and icing sugar, it’s smooth and biscuity and utterly moreish. Now, because it’s made with so few ingredients, you need to make sure they are the absolute best ingredients you can find. Get your hands on fine chickpea flour – its available in the health aisle of most supermarkets or in spice shops. It’s often called ‘Chana’ – that’s the stuff you want! Next, use the best-quality icing sugar, because not all are created equal! I love the Natura Sugars Demerara Icing Sugar because it is made from unrefined sugar so it still has some of the goodness and flavour of cane sugar locked inside which gives it a light caramel flavour. Best of all it’s non-GMO. As for the ghee, I was lucky enough to be gifted some by Shaheen from Natura Sugars who gets hers on her trips to Mauritius to source her beautiful sugars. Good-quality ghee makes all the difference!
While chickpea fudge has been made super trendy by the Instagram health foodie brigade who have all made sugar-free, lactose-free, fun-free versions, I love the authentic chana magaj that most of you have probably been making for years already! I bumped up the traditional cardamom spice by adding fragrant chai spices, some chocolatey-ness (chocolate is never a bad thing) and sprinkled it with toasted almonds for crunch. But if you’d like to keep it more traditional, 1 tsp of ground cardamom is all it really needs to be just perfect.
**I’m running a GIVEAWAY of Natura Sugars over on my Instagram page HERE so head over and enter to win one of two sugar hampers for you and a friend worth R400 each.
WATCH ME MAKE THIS RECIPE ON YOUTUBE!
- 300g ghee
- 300g chickpea flour
- 80g ground almonds
- 300g Natura Sugars Demerara Icing Sugar
- 165g full cream milk powder
- Chai Spice Mix
- 1 tbsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 20g cocoa powder
- 30g flaked almonds, toasted (optional)
- Line a 32cm loaf tin with baking paper.
- Place the ghee and the chickpea flour into a large non-stick frying pan.
- Braise on medium heat, for about 10 minutes, stirring often, until the colour starts to turn a light golden brown caramel.
- Remove from heat and add the ground almonds, icing sugar and milk powder then return to the heat and cook for a further 10-15 minutes until a deep golden caramel colour.
- Stir in the spices then press half the mixture into the base of the cake tin.
- Mix in the cocoa powder and pour the mixture on top of the previous layer.
- Smooth out the top then sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
- Refrigerate until set then slice into thin pieces to serve.