Buckwheat Crepes and Pancakes

I have by now made buckwheat pancakes a number of times. I'll note the things diverging from the recipe: I've used oat milk as the alternative milk (starting out with an equal amount of buckwheat flour and oat milk, and no water), and I've fried them with olive oil (this being available. a few times I've also put coconut oil into the mix, but this made little difference). They turn out quite well, though they are often a bit unwieldy during the making before they've fried sufficiently; it got easier when I made the batter a bit thinner.

Further experimentation:

For some additional taste (as well as making the batter a bit cheaper to make), you can replace some of the oat milk with sesame milk of the simplest variety: blend unpeeled sesame seeds in water.

Another replacement, which, due to being a bit thicker and fuller (make it somewhat less watery than alternative milk, but not pudding-like), also replaces some of the buckwheat flour (not too much! I'd guess roughly up to a third of the batter, but haven't measured): Blend unpeeled sesame seeds, proportionally slightly less sunflower seeds, and proportionally yet slightly less flax seeds in water. (if made thicker and combined with a bit of coconut oil, this, by the way, makes something really nice and pudding-like, which can be used for many things)

The pancakes resulting from this last one, I've been told, taste particularly good, and seem like the batter could also be used for waffles (not yet tried).
 
Psalehesost said:
Another replacement, which, due to being a bit thicker and fuller (make it somewhat less watery than alternative milk, but not pudding-like), also replaces some of the buckwheat flour (not too much! I'd guess roughly up to a third of the batter, but haven't measured): Blend unpeeled sesame seeds, proportionally slightly less sunflower seeds, and proportionally yet slightly less flax seeds in water. (if made thicker and combined with a bit of coconut oil, this, by the way, makes something really nice and pudding-like, which can be used for many things)

The pancakes resulting from this last one, I've been told, taste particularly good, and seem like the batter could also be used for waffles (not yet tried).
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I juts tried making a load of batter where I made somewhere between a fourth and a third of it be the above-mentioned mixture, though I did make it thicker ("pudding-like") this time. It seems to have made (just now tried) excellent waffles - I also made pancakes, which is where the concentration of the mixture became a problem; they must be fried for somewhat longer with less heat unless you are to have a mess of broken pancakes (though fully edible and hardly bad that way). If you add the mixture for pancakes, then, as noted in the above-quoted, less thick, and it therefore replacing more of the alternate milk than the buckwheat flour, would do best.
 
I would have used two cups liquid to one cup flour. (1 an 1/2 cup rice milk and 1/2 cup oil). Then, adjust based on what you want to do with it.

Worry not, the pancake video is coming!
 
Laura said:
I would have used two cups liquid to one cup flour. (1 an 1/2 cup rice milk and 1/2 cup oil). Then, adjust based on what you want to do with it.

Worry not, the pancake video is coming!
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Yea!! I need the visuals! I actually tried again tonight, with better success. I only made a small batch, still used the almond milk tho, less salt, and ground up two tablespoons of flaxseed in a coffee grinder first and added that, plus some cinnamon, flax seed oil, and a bit of xylitol.

The batter was thinner, and I turned a heat down a bit. Only problem is I don't know how long to cook them on each side, they weren't thin like crepes, more like regular pancakes. After, I took out some frozen blueberries and thawed them, and put them on top with a sprinkle of xylitol.

Not too shabby. :)
 
I think finding the right texture no matter your ingredients may be important. The French have a word for the right texture for the batter for pancakes: onctueux. Do we have this word in English? Anyway, I find the batter should be thick liquid like when you take a spoon of it and pour it back in the bowl it does not break from either being too thick or too thin, but I suspect that is not the right texture for crepes. I have not tried those yet. They scare me a little. They might be beyond my ability to grasp at my current level of cookingness.
 
Mrs. Peel said:
Only problem is I don't know how long to cook them on each side, they weren't thin like crepes, more like regular pancakes. After, I took out some frozen blueberries and thawed them, and put them on top with a sprinkle of xylitol.
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I usually flip mine when bubbles start to form around the edges of the pancake, but don't wait too long or else it will be a crispy pancake!
 
Worry not, the pancake video is coming!
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sweet! I was hoping so. I have been honing my skills with whole-wheat batter for the moment, and cannot wait to make the switch! :)


Also--to anyone...

There was a series of "healing with food" videos put up on cassiopaeaorg youtube channel, and was wondering if there is a discussion somewhere on these forums about it. It there is, I have not been able to find the thread.

Though I would probably best be served by doing some reading , just wondering because I have some questions about the vids and what was said.
 
I am not sure if someone has tried this, but I have been trying to find a way how to make the crapes softer so I have been experimenting with the recipe for buckwheat crapes lately.
I use:
1.5 cups of buckwheat flour
1 egg yolk
half teaspoon baking powder
sugar (stevia)
enough of rice milk to make the dough thick enough for pancakes
And then I fold into the well mixed mixture 2 egg whites which are beat with an electric mixer until they are very stiff.

I find that when I fold the stiff egg whites into the batter the pancakes are more fluffy and less sticky when I fry them. They are delicious. I can eat them everyday.
 
Some further experimentation:

I've tried all manner of varieties based on the basic buckwheat pancake. First, an observation: Water, buckwheat and a bit of salt is completely sufficient for making pancakes. The baking powder somewhat changes the taste - in a neutral way, and also seems a good idea when more things are mixed into the pancake batter, though I've also done all of the below without it. It's a long time since I've added any alternative milk of any sort, apart from the result of blending some of the additions I've tried - it's not necessary.

Basically, pick from one to all of the following: Flax seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, psyllium seeds, coconut.

Then simply experiment, adding in sensible proportions. Note: coconut varieties can be challenging at times to fry well - make sure to lop off the edges of your pancakes when they darken in color, as they can extend out a bit and get done before everything else, and be charred black if you leave them in place. Adding psyllium seeds on the contrary makes them easier to fry, and the batter can become slightly jelly-ish; this as well as sunflower seeds makes for very creamy pancakes.

My favorite as yet, looking back on all those varieties, is the version consisting of: Water, buckwheat, coconut (roughly 1/8 of the amount of buckwheat), salt, baking powder.
 
We've been recently going thru similar experimentation in searching for the perfect fluffy buckwheat pancake.

Recently, changing from adding olive oil to the mix to melted butter(for those who can) seemed to up the bar, here anyway. We still use baking powder(non-aluminum) and water. They are now as fluffy as the white-flour-garbage so common.

I should add, Psalehesost's input as far as coconut goes is right-on, imo. Yummyness. And soon we'll try adding organic coconut 'creme' as well. :whistle:
 
Success!! I finally was able to track down some organic buckwheat flour and rice milk in Tokyo (thanks Aya!) and gave the recipe a go. I was a little worried about messing it up as I didn't have baking powder or flax oil. Instead I just used:

150g buckwheat flour (the amount was small because the biggest bag I could find was 300g :huh:)
200g rice milk
1/2 tbs olive oil
pinch of salt
cinnamon to somewhat coat the top of the mix

Annnnnd, they came out pretty well! I didn't believe that these crepes were that tasty :P Anyway, I got about four thin 5-6 inch crepes out of them. Not bad for a first go hee hee.
 
Just made up my first batch of buckwheat pancakes and they turned out pretty good! However, not as good as they could have been, so I'm seeking some advice here to refine my method.

The outside cooked up to a nice golden brown--pretty much just like the "regular" pancakes I've made most of my life. However, the insides were still kind of gooey, "batter-ey". But it seemed that if I were to have cooked them any longer, then they would have burned on the outside surfaces in order to get the middle done enough. So in order to get the "middle" done enough without burning the outsides, would I need to thin the batter a bit? Seems like when I have done this with "regular" pancakes they generally fall apart and don't stay together when they are flipped. Any tips or tricks to make a better buckwheat pancake? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm looking forward to having these for breakfast a lot more often in the future. :)
 
Like I said, I'm going to do the buckwheat bread video as soon as we get our camera back from the shop. I think it will help a lot to not only hear the explanations, but to see it in action. They are SOOOO easy that we literally make about 100 of the bun sized ones every day. They are used for sandwiches, little pizzas, sweetbread with cinnamon, savory bread with soups and stews, just literally everything that you use other breads for! All from the same basic recipe. Once you get it down pat, you can keep a bowl of batter in the fridge at all times and when you want anything at all in the bread line, in less than ten minutes, you have fresh made bread.
 
Laura said:
Like I said, I'm going to do the buckwheat bread video as soon as we get our camera back from the shop. I think it will help a lot to not only hear the explanations, but to see it in action. They are SOOOO easy that we literally make about 100 of the bun sized ones every day. They are used for sandwiches, little pizzas, sweetbread with cinnamon, savory bread with soups and stews, just literally everything that you use other breads for! All from the same basic recipe. Once you get it down pat, you can keep a bowl of batter in the fridge at all times and when you want anything at all in the bread line, in less than ten minutes, you have fresh made bread.
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This would be fantastic. I've got buckwheat, quinoa, and some brown rice flour, xantham gum, etc to try out bread recipes....and it would be great to have some kind of bread for sandwiches etc. I had some rice pasta last night with veggies and garlic in olive oil, and that was yummy. :)
 
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