How can I know when are chickpeas done soaking?

Question

I am trying to make tofu out of chickpeas with this Any Legume Tofu recipe (which seems like Burmese Chickpea Tofu), which states:

Ingredients:

1. 200g dried legumes (chickpeas, beans, lentils)

Method:

1. Soak the legumes overnight or for at least 8 hours.
2. The next day, drain the legumes and pulse them in a food processor to break down slightly. Then add 500 ml of water and blend until smooth.
3. Filter the blended legumes through a sieve into a sauce pan and use the back of the spoon to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Discard the pulp or use in baking (you can mix it into Sourdough Rye Bread dough). Add 1/2 tsp of salt to the liquid and whisk it in. You will notice that some of the protein has already sunk to the bottom of the pan. Make sure to loosen it with the whisk or it will burn.
4. Bring the liquid to a boil, whisking constantly. Keep simmering for 1 minute, whisking every now and then, until the mixture sticks to the whisk and doesn’t instantly level out when you stir it. Some legumes, like chickpeas, might need a little longer to reduce. So keep cooking if it feels too runny. Pour the mixture into a mould and let it set for an hour before using.

My procedure and problem:

I left the chickpeas to soak overnight. When I woke up (approximately 7h later), I realised they had soaked a lot of water and they were not covered anymore (my bad, should have put even more water). I would say they were covered 3/4 or 3/5. So I added more water. Now they will have soaked approximately 10h, but there is no way to know when did they stopped being fully water covered. I have seen several articles/websites (reddit, soaking them for too long?, how to soak and cook chickpeas, same v.2.0, , why won't my chickpeas soften, even in here Seasoned Advice and hard chickpeas even after soaking.

Most of them agree on an at least 12h soaking time (also depending on factors like altitude and water properties). Even the chickpeas bag states 12 hours of soaking (they are from the same place I am right now, so I guess altitude and water won't matter much?).

So I will stick to those 12h. But how can I know more or less a good timing, not knowing how much time there were left half-soaked while I was sleeping? And why would the recipe state AT LEAST 8 HOURS, if even the bag (and most recipes) says 12h? My guess is that, in other recipes I saw of burmese chickpea tofu, they use chickpea flour, so maybe it's not that important for this recipe specifically, to let them soak 12h, as long as it can be blended properly?

To end this, a picture of a soaked chickpea right now, another soaked chickpea which I split in half with a knife (I also could split them by hand by pressing a bit with 2 fingers), and 3 raw chickpeas (not soaked). I put 3 as I know chickpeas may vary in size, so the soaked (and grown in size) chickpeas may also vary in size.

Answer 1

Your recipe may be wrong, or the instructions on the packaging could be over-estimating the time it takes to re-hydrate to ensure people aren't disappointed. I would go with the higher number to be sure.

From my own experience I've found that dried beans and chickpeas soak up a lot of water in the first 2-3 hours, then the rate of absorption slows down, so I would work on the assumption that in the first 2-3 hours the top of your chickpeas became uncovered, which means you'd want to soak them for 9-10 hours longer if you are working to a 12 hour soaking time. They'll probably need less than that, but you don't want to under-soak or you may not get a good result.