I have an unpopular opinion confession. I’m not a massive fan of sourdough.

There I said it and I feel a big weight being lifted off my shoulders, and if you’re still here, thank you for not closing this page and throwing your phone/desktop out of the window in utter disgust.

Sourdough and other bread and cake making have been huge lately due to lockdown, but of course this has resulted in a wide-spread lack of flour in the supermarkets. But the one flour type I did manage to get my hands on, was gram flour. Made from chickpeas this flour is gluten-free and used a lot in Indian cooking, but I have found a little a bread called Socca, from southern France, and it’s devastatingly easy. I covered mine in herb and garlic melted butter because that seems like the obvious thing to do.

Ingredients

Socca
120g gram flour
150ml water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil for batter
1 tablespoon olive oil for pan

Butter
20g butter
Handful thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano (a collection of whichever herbs you have)
1 or 2 garlic cloves crushed

Method

1. Whisk together gram flour, water, salt and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a smooth batter. Leave covered for 1 hour at room temperature.
2.  Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil into a 9 or 10 inch cast iron skillet and pop into the oven to heat up.
3. Once the oven and pan are hot, pour in the batter and swirl around so reaches the edges.
4. Bake for around 20 minutes or until browned slightly and crisp on the outside.
5. Heat up the butter, herbs and garlic until just melted, pour over the warm socca.