CHOCOLATE CHAI CHICKPEA FUDGE

Chickpea fudge is a buttery, sweet, biscuitlike slice made with chickpea flour, icing sugar, spices and ghee, also known as chana magaj.

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. 300g ghee

300g chickpea flour

80g ground almonds

300g 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.