Ceci Pie Recipe

Filling

9 c. ceci beans* (aka chickpeas or garbanzo beans)

1 3/4 c. honey

1 t. freshly ground nutmeg

1 t. ground allspice

1 t. cinnamon
3 t. vanilla 

1 1/2 t dried orange zest mixed with 1 1/2 t water

1/4 c. frozen orange juice concentrate

1 t. salt*
2 T lemon juice (optional)

* One of the recipes we started with noted that it was best to buy dry and soak.  We put 2 lbs of dried chickpeas into a 6 quart slow cooker with lots of water, and cooked them on high for about 5 hours, until they were tender, and then measured out 9 cups.  Because there was no salt in the ceci beans, the filling tasted a little flat until we added some salt.

Place all of the filling ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth.  You may have to do this in batches, depending on the size of your blender.

Making 4 inch pies, we had almost 6 cups leftover.  In the future we'll be halving the filling recipe, making larger pies (with more filling per pie) or making 2 batches of dough.

Dough

8 c. flour

1 c. milk

4 eggs

3/4 c. oil

3/4 c. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 t salt

Additional flour, for rolling
Additional milk, for sealing

Peanut oil or a blend of vegetable oil and shortening for deep frying

Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Measure milk into container, and break the eggs into the milk.  Beat the eggs into the milk and stir the oil into the milk mixture.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until a soft, crumbly dough forms.  Add more milk or flour if necessary to get a good dough consistency. Knead the dough in bowl a few times to help it come together in a ball.  Some loose flour and crumbs are OK.  Divide the dough into quarters.  Place one quarter on a floured work surface, cover the remaining dough with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out while you work.

Roll the dough out to 1/8" thickness, turning and adding flour as necessary to keep it from sticking.

Cut 4" circles of dough.    Dip a finger in milk and run it halfway along the edge of a circle.

Place a heaping tablespoon of batter on one side of the circle. Fold the dry dough over and pinch the edge.  Set the pie down on the table and press along the edge with a fork to seal.  Turn the pie over and crimp the edge with a fork a second time.

Filling the pies takes a lot of time, so it's good to have a second person to run the deep fryer. Once you have a few pies filled, heat the deep frying oil in a fryer or a deep pan until it reaches 365 - 370 F.  Slip 2 or 3 pies into the oil at a time.  

Fry, turning once,  until golden brown on both sides.  Set the fried pies on metal cooling racks set over paper towels to catch drips.  If you want to sprinkle the pies with powdered sugar, do it while they're still warm.

Obviously my crimping needs some work -- but the filling doesn't leak out into the oil.  It's starchy enough to form a crust against the hot oil.

I don't have much deep frying experience.  A friend taught me to use a mixture of half solid vegetable shortening and half vegetable oil for frying.  The pies pictured above were fried in peanut oil.  The shortening blend darkened a lot.   The peanut oil stood up to frying a big batch of pies better -- it could have been filtered and re-used. The crust tasted better when fried in the shortening blend. (Trans fats taste yummy, I guess.) I think next time I'm going to buy one of the creamy frying blends that I've seen at commercial kitchen supply stores, to see if I can find a balance of stability and flavor.