Garbanzo Beans - or Beans in a Bakery?

Not everything comes out right.  We soaked some garbanzo beans, maybe 14 hours, cooked for 2 hours, and still were not soft, so we put it in the oven at 350 for 2 hours.  Oy, still a little crunchy.  We judge how garbanzo beans are supposed to taste by how they tasted in Florence a few years ago.  During the shopping for our ingredients for a cooking class with Judy, we needed beans (but not canned), so how to get them freshly cooked (because we certainly didn't have time to soak them beforehand or even to do the quick soak)?  She took us to the local forno (bakery), spoke some beautiful Italian,  the owner goes into the back kitchen and comes out with a pot of steaming garbanzo beans!  Why would you find beans in the bakery, you ask?  It's just a thing some bakeries do:  They keep the pot of beans in the baking oven for the steam!!

The taste of perfectly cooked garbanzo beans:  put the bean on your tongue and press upwards on your palate.  The bean should sort of "pop" against your palate, and be very light textured.

BTW, I emailed my Rancho Gordo peeps last night to find out what could have been the problem.  Susan at RG said we soaked them too long (14 hours instead of 4-6 hours).  These were beans picked in late summer/early fall.  Also most supermarket beans could be 10 years old when you buy them, although we've had good luck with Goya.  If you do buy canned (5 thumbs down), wash a couple of times in clear, cold water and drain before you use them. 

What did we do with our beans?  Michael made a meatloaf (ground chicken) with 1/2 of the beans.  Just the ground chicken, some fresh (from our window pots) chopped rosemary & sage, minced garlic, the beans, and an egg.  The meatloaf could have used a little of bean liquor.

Later.