selena

Do you like buckwheat pancakes at all? There is a great difference of opinion on this subject mainly, I think, because people who have tried them have been served inferior (grainy, not sufficiently cooked) buckwheat pancakes.

The journal entries are always based on my own experiences, as I lack the imagination for anything else! Yep, I made it to the airplane and home safely. I didn't put that part in because it didn't seem interesting.

Buckwheat is thought of as a cereal, but is actually an herb of the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae. The triangular seeds are used to make the flour after
being removed from the husk. In one pound of raw buckwheat there are 1,520 calories. The composition of our buckwheat flour is approximately: 63% carbohydrate, 11.7% protein, 2.4% fat, 9.9% fiber, 11% water and 2% minerals.

And it tastes good.

Buckwheat Pancakes

(This is for 10 servings, so you might want to either adjust the recipe or, heck, have a bunch of people over. For two people I would reduce the recipe only by half. I am a big eater of pancakes.)

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs -- lightly beaten
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon melted butter
Vegetable oil to coat griddle
1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds
In a large mixing bowl, sift together flours, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, honey and butter.

Combine wet ingredients with dry and stir with wooden spoon to combine. Batter will be slightly lumpy.

Brush hot griddle with oil, then pour 1/4 cup batter (more for larger pancakes), onto griddle, leaving 1 inch between pancakes.

Immediately sprinkle each pancake with 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds. Cook one side of the pancake until bubbles begin to break on surface and underside is brown. Flip pancakes and brown other side.

Serve with whipped butter and warm maple syrup (duh).

If you order buckwheat pancakes at IHOP, demand that they be cooked fully. Nothing will turn you off buckwheat pancakes quicker than if you get a half-cooked stack, which on a busy Saturday morning at IHOP is always a possibility.