Buckwheat Pancakes

In the mid-90s my parents had the grand idea of switching to a purely whole grain diet. This idea was weird and the food was weirder: whole wheat peanut butter cookies, brown rice crackers, Triscuits, brown rice (when will it ever finish cooking). Enter the buckwheat pancake. Not only could I handle this l addition to my diet, I loved it — even more than a regular pancake. It was light, it was fluffy, and it was the perfect vehicle to bring copious amounts of warm maple syrup to my mouth.

Many moons later, I found out a few things about buckwheat. Buckwheat is not a variety of wheat and it’s technically not even a grain. It has no gluten which is why it makes such a tender pancake. While it’s complete protein which is rare in the plant world, it doesn’t have a whole lot of it so if you like a hearty breakfast, pair the pancake with another protein source.

Buckwheat can have a strong almost bitter flavor, but it’s also nutty and complex. I didn’t need to adapt to the flavor, but I can see how some people might need a little coaxing. If you’re worried, substitute half of the flour with whole wheat or all-purpose flour.

Due to buckwheat’s boldness, Steen’s cane syrup with butter roasted pecans is the best flavor combo. Real maple syrup is also good but some of the mapleness gets lost. This is not the time for Log Cabin syrup, but I don’t think there is ever a time for that.

Ingredients
4 Tbl unsalted butter (plus more for pan)
2/3 c full fat Greek yogurt
1 & 1/3 c milk
4 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, separated
2 c buckwheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Steen’s Cane Syrup
Buttered Roasted Pecans

Directions
Melt 4 Tbl of the butter. Separate the eggs and put the whites in an extremely clean and oil free bowl (don’t use a plastic bowl – glass or stainless steel are best). Take an extremely clean whisk in your dominate hand and hold the bowl against the counter with your other hand. Make the whisk go right to left in the egg whites as fast as you can until the eggs reach stiff peaks. You can certainly use a mixer for this, but with two egg whites, I can get peaks faster than it would take me to get the Kitchen Aid to the counter.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until lighter in color. Wisk in the yogurt, milk, vanilla, and melted butter.

Stir the dry ingredients well in a large bowl. If you have pockets of salt or baking powder now, you’ll have them in the final product.

Fold the egg whites into the milk. Then pour that over the dry mix. Fold just enough times to combine the mix. Easy Charlie. You’ll have some lumps (buckwheat won’t have as many lumps as wheat flour.

Heat a cast iron pan (or whatever you have) on about medium heat. Add butter (you’ll want it nice and coated). Add the pancake batter to the pan. Flip them when you see bubbles on the surface of the pancake. Add another dollop of butter in the pan. Let the pancakes sit just a minute or until the underside is brown (golden if using wheat flour) and remove from the pan.

You can serve the pancakes immediately or you can put them in a 200 degree oven directly on the rack. Do not stack hot pancakes, they’ll steam and get rubbery.

Notes
Getting the heat right on pancakes is a little tricky. If the heat is too low, the pancakes won’t get a good color. If it’s too hot, the pancake will get too dark. Once you find the perfect temperature, make note of the pan, exact burner, and the temperature of the burner. Next time, you should be able to find your sweet spot on the first try.

You can use buttermilk in place of the yogurt and milk. You might need to reduce the amount of buttermilk so you pancakes don’t get too thin.