Carob is a highly underrated wild legume that is mainly cultivated and native to the Mediterranean and West/Southwest Asia that looks like this:
I first became aware of its baking potential when my mother started using carob flour to make me and my sibling poundcake for school when we were kids. It may have a distinct taste but there was an inherent richness and taste profile that made it so enjoyable even as a main ingredient.
That being said, I also decided to share this recipe - besides with the goal of introducing you to this awesome legume - due to the current fate of the cocoa agricultural industry. The cocoa industry has been infamous many years now, mainly for their colourful crimes against humanity and the concept of labour, human rights and sustainable development.
Recently as many people including myself have noticed from the significant rise in chocolate prices around the world, something has befallen the cocoa industry once more. A swollen shoot viral disease is plaguing farms across West Africa and the supply of our beloved chocolate has taken a significant hit^[1 https://gna.org.gh/2024/02/ghana-loses-over-500000-hectares-of-cocoa-farms-to-swollen-shoot-viral-disease/]^[2 https://www.esmmagazine.com/supply-chain/ivory-coast-cocoa-output-seen-lower-as-swollen-shoot-disease-spreads-255915].
With that in mind, it is important to be mindful of what we consume and how much of it we consume. For both economic and environmental reasons broadening our palettes can do us a lot of good. This recipe besides being very delicious and nutricious can be a great way to introduce new flavour profiles into your life without sacrificing the small pleasures of desserts containing cocoa.^___^