Sometimes ideas come out of nowhere. For some reason, I had the idea to make buckwheat pancakes. I’m not sure I’ve even had them more than two or three times, but it’s an American southern classic, and I guess the sound of the name just said breakfast to me. So we made buckwheat pancakes.
Buckwheat is not actually related to wheat; in fact, it isn’t even a grain. It plays a role in different cultures around the world, and my favorite use is probably in Japanese soba noodles. It also appears in Breton crepes and polenta variations. Plus, it’s gluten-free.
I happened to have a massive bag of buckwheat flour that I bought at Nitzat Hadovdevan. However, I used some wheat flour in my pancakes as well, since the plant-like buckwheat flavor was a little too intense for me on its own. Admittedly, these pancakes have a somewhat “healthful” taste to them — lots of buckwheat and yogurt, and not so much butter — which may or may not be what you want for breakfast.
Nothing like maple syrup to make things a little less healthful, though.
For 12 pancakes:
1/4 cup butter (plus another ±2 tablespoons for frying the pancakes)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons light brown sugar (demarara)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup yogurt (my choice: buffalo yogurt)
1/2 cup milk
Melt the butter in a bowl (about 30 seconds on High in the microwave). Add the baking powder, salt and sugar. Add a half-cup of buckwheat; beat in the eggs. Add the second half-cup of buckwheat; mix in the yogurt. Add the white flour; mix in the milk. (The order of the ingredients isn’t that crucial, but it helps to alternate liquids with flour).
Heat a frying pan. Drop a sliver of butter into the pan, so that the bottom of the pan is thinly covered in butter. Pour scoops of batter into the pan — I nicely fit three 1/4-cups of batter into a 26-centimeter pan. Once the pancakes start looking cooked around the edges, and faint bubbles appear on top, flip. Add a bit more butter to the pan. Remove to a plate; I put my plate in the oven at 40-60 degrees Celsius so the pancakes would stay warm.
Repeat with the remainder of the batter. Eat with butter/maple syrup/jam/fruit.
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