Buckwheat Pancakes

While we’ve not been going many places during the pandemic, we have been trying to keep it interesting at home. For example, most Sunday mornings we have a somewhat special breakfast. Now, we’re not talking a huge breakfast buffet, or anything like that, just something a bit more special (normally we have a bowl of oatmeal with raisins and a bit of our Best-Ever Scratched Granola sprinkled on top). So sometimes we have muffins, and sometimes pancakes, and lately we’ve added in the star of today’s post: buckwheat pancakes.

Now, buckwheat pancakes really aren’t any more difficult than any other pancake. All you do is substitute some buckwheat flour (about 40%) for whatever other flour you are using. That’s it. Of course, being dedicated scratchers, we grind our own buckwheat flour (and the wheat flour) right before mixing up a batch. It’s easy with a high-speed blender. More importantly, we start with the Best Buttermilk Pancake recipe and modify it to use buckwheat.

Ingredient discussion:

We list most of the ingredients by weight and a few by volume simply because that’s the way we measure them. When we know we’ll want pancakes with fresh ground flours, the night before we simply place the blender pitcher on the scale, zero it, add 40 grams of buckwheat groats, add enough wheat berries to get up to 100 grams, then add the sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Then, because the blender heats everything up, we place the pitcher in the freezer overnight. Then next day, we blast everything on high, and 60 seconds later, we have our flours and all dry ingredients ready to go. Of course, you can start with pre-ground flours and still have great pancakes. For the eggs, we try to use those that come from happy hens, those hens that get to peck and scratch outdoors and behave like chickens. We believe that if hens are left to behave more like hens, their eggs will taste more like eggs. Finally, we make our own buttermilk, we started quite a while ago as an experiment, just to see if we could do it. It turned out so easy that we’ve never stopped.

Procedure in detail:

Heat griddle. One of the keys to making good pancakes is to have a griddle nice and hot when you start scooping on the batter. So, as soon as we start, we place a griddle on medium heat to start warming. About the time we finish making the pancake batter, our griddle is hot and ready. Now, after making pancakes dozens of times, we’ve figured out hot to set our stove, but you might have to adjust the temperature up or down as you go. After a few rounds of pancakes, you’ll have it down. We also use this griddle to melt the butter by placing the butter in a metal measuring cup and setting it right on the griddle.

Mix dry ingredients. Here’s where we break out the blender pitcher, but you don’t have to if your buckwheat and flour are already ground. Simply place the flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk or stir until well combined. If you’re grinding grain, place all those ingredients in the pitcher of a high-speed blender (we do this the night before and let everything chill overnight then grind the next morning) and crank it up to high. We find that about a minute of grinding is perfect, but a little more or less won’t hurt. One of the things we really like is that some of the grain doesn’t grind finely, leaving our pancakes with a nice grainy texture.

Mix liquid ingredients. Crack the egg into a medium bowl (we normally use a 1 quart measuring cup with a spout), and whisk until the egg is pale yellow and light, about a minute. Add the buttermilk and whisk until well combined. Finally, while whisking briskly (perhaps that should be “brisking”) pour in the butter. Some of the butter will solidify as you add it — that’s fine — but it’ll be in tiny lumps.

Combine to make batter. Okay, this is important: pancake batter should not be lump free, small lumps are fine. So add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, and using a few quick strokes (about 10-15), stir it into batter. Remember small lumps of unmixed flour are fine.

Cook pancakes. By now the griddle is hot and ready to go, so using a paper towel, quickly rub a bit of oil over the surface, and scoop batter onto the griddle. We like small pancakes, so we scoop out about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter for each pancake, but you can make them bigger if you wish. Let the pancake cook until the edges are starting to look a bit dry, and bubbles have formed across the surface, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side for about the same length of time. Wipe the griddle with a bit more oil as necessary between pancakes.

For some reason we think having pancakes for breakfast is kind of special, probably because we don’t have them regularly, and these buckwheat pancakes help to keep it that way. Sometimes we make plain buttermilk pancakes, sometimes rye pancakes, sometimes barley pancakes, and now, sometimes buckwheat pancakes. They all are really good and easy, and by changing the grains around keeps everything interesting. Five stars.