Besan is another word for chickpea, the legume used to make falafels, hummus and numerous other Moroccan meals. It's also the flour used to make the popular Indian entrée pakora. Besan has a distinctive taste giving this pastry a flavour quite removed from whole wheat pastry. It contains no gluten - good news for those with an allergy or intolerance to gluten.
Like other legumes, chickpeas have antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties and they're high in fibre and low in fat. The flour is yellow in colour, and available from most health food stores.
In this recipe, you can roll the pastry in one large flan case or smaller single serve flan cases. If you're single, it's probably worthwhile investing in a number of small single serve flan tins - the ones with the removable bottoms. Make a full batch to freeze. All the fillings in the recipes using pastry are interchangeable - large or small - just vary the quantity of filling accordingly.