I've used it to make roux many times when cooking GF, but I've not baked with it much.

Some years ago, I tried making a small batch of Béchamel sauce with six or so flours, including wheat, to see how they worked and tasted and had my family taste them all. (Our GF daughter-in-law didn't taste the one made with wheat flour, of course.)

Chick pea/garbanzo bean flour was the non-wheat one we liked the taste of the most. Since then, I've made gravies, sauces and even souffles with garbanzo bean flour, and also with gar-fava bean flour, which is sometimes easier to find from Bobs Red Mill.

As a thickener, it isn't quite as strong as wheat flour. (I think McGee rates it a 3 on a 1-5 scale, wheat is a 4 and potato and tapioca are both 5's.)

Aaron--Your comment about that four-year old reminds me of a story from a former colleague, who as a young child, decided only to eat white foods. Her mother bought a book, Bread and Jam for Frances, about a little girl who would only eat bread and jam. The lesson backfired, as my friend interpreted the story, which was meant to encourage children to eat more varieties of food, as so cool that the little girl only ate bread and jam. The book ended up reinforcing the behavior it was meant to change. I'm always amused that people producing some children's literature think that children will take exactly the intended message from these stories.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: fixed sentence error