A few months ago I published a recipe for sourdough buckwheat pancakes. Elanne and I have done some more experimentation since then, and I think they’re pretty darn near perfection at this point.
The one quibble I had with them before is that they weren’t quite as fluffy and light as typical pancakes. Melissa McEwan from Hunt.Gather.Love made a suggestion in the comments section of the last post that solved that problem beautifully. Thanks Melissa!
Check it out and let me know what you think!
The (new and improved) recipe
Step one
- 1 C buckwheat groats (raw, not toasted)
- 2 C yogurt*
Place buckwheat in a bowl, cover with yogurt and soak for 12 – 24 hours at room temperature.
Step two
After soaking rinse yogurt from buckwheat. Put buckwheat in blender with approximately 1 cup of fresh yogurt. The amount you use depends on how thick you’d like the pancakes to be. Blend until smooth.
Rinse out bowl that buckwheat was soaking in and add the blended mixture back to the bowl.
Step three
Put a cast iron or heavy ceramic (i.e. Le Crueset) pan on the burner over medium to medium high heat and let the pan heat up while you are mixing up the batter. The secret to cooking pancakes is to make sure the pan gets hot before you add the batter.
Add to buckwheat batter:
- 2 whole eggs beaten
- 1/2 c milk (or unsweetened almond milk or water); omit this step if you like thicker pancakes
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt
Mix in the wet ingredients. Then sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the surface of the batter and thoroughly mix it in.
Make sure the pan is hot and add a generous amount of fat (ghee, coconut oil, lard etc) to the pan. When fat is shimmering ladle pancake batter into the pan. Allow pancakes to cook almost all the way through before flipping. You can either continue to add fat before each new pancake or not. With more fat the pancakes are almost like fritters, with less they are more like typical pancakes.
Step four
Top with fruit, butter, kefir cream, whipped cream, coconut butter or coconut milk. You can also add a small amount of honey if you don’t have blood sugar issues, but I find they are sweet enough with the fruit alone.
*If you’re lactose intolerant, try making homemade yogurt and fermenting it for at least 24 hours. That will almost completely eliminate the lactose, and it’s likely you’ll be able to tolerate it.
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These are amazing. Best pancake recipe yet, and so easy. I am too cheap to soak these in yoghurt, so I use water and then yoghurt in step 2. They work fine without eggs even (egg allergy). I store the batter in the fridge and cook fresh batches as needed, in less than a week.
This is by far my favorite recipe I found on your site. Everyone in my family loves it, so thanks a bundle! I’ve got a question concerning the fermentation of quinoa – do you happen to know what is the best way to reduce its phytic acid content and whether it is in fact necessary to make the nutrients more bioavailable? (I couldn’t find any information on the phytic acid in quinoa.) I was thinking that simply covering it with yogurt and soaking them for 24h might help but it’s just a guess based on your buckwehat pancakes recipe. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Here is a link to an article on the Weston Price website, which contains a lot of info regarding phytic acid in various grains. Towards the end, you will see some various ways to reduce it in quinoa. The problem is that there is no phytase in quinoa, so you have to get it from something else, like buckwheat! Yay!. If you soak the buckwheat for a day or two, the pink colored liquid on top is high in phytase, the enzyme that breaks down phytic acid. I just add it to the quinoa soaking water, let it soak for 1 or 2 days, then cook it. You can even store the phytase for a week or two in the fridge, but check for mold before you use it if it’s been stored for longer.
http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/living-with-phytic-acid
Looks quite yummy! I make a histamine-safe version of these since becoming histamine sensitive…basically 1 cup sprouted buckwheat groats, 2 eggs, 5 T butter, ghee or coconut oil, 1/2 c flax milk/ coconut milk or other tolerated milk, salt. They need to be fried thin…as crepes. Then, sprinkle with Stevia powder. Delicious!
Chris, I noticed that the new recipe eliminates the 2nd fermentation step that you used to recommend after running the soaked groats thru the blender. Is one fermentation all that’s needed?
I, too, would like to know how this new method compares nutritionally to soaking, grinding, and fermenting?
Chris could you please explain why it’s necessary to rinse the yogurt off after soaking? Is the phytic acid still present?
Could I soak in fresh whey instead of whole yogurt?
What is the difference?
(I’d rather eat Greek yogurt and have whey left over for soaking than use whole yogurt) thanks!
Yes. They lead to a different texture. Yogurt makes the pancakes fluffier.
What if I used whey for soaking, but still added the cup of whole yogurt after, when blending? Best of both worlds?
I made these today and we all loved them. I soaked with plain yogurt (not greek) as mentioned, rinsed in colander with water, blended in vitamix with 1cup plain yogurt, slowly until the consistency was a think liquid.
I didn’t add milk, but did separate eggs, folding in the whites after mixing in all the ingredients, plus I added cinnamon. Then I let the mix sit for 20 minutes to allow for more fluffy pancakes.
I tried topping with maple syrup which was great, then I tried the fruit with a sprinkle of yogurt which was amazing!
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the post and all the helpful comments:)
Finally did this. Delicious.
We’re on the SCD and can’t have any grains yet. In the big picture, I wonder why buckwheat isn’t allowed on this program. Does the yogurt alleviate the digestive issues that make it a no — go on the SCD program?
SCD is about the type of carbohydrates in the food–basically no starch allowed. That’s a separate issue from phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, which is what you’re after with soaking or souring.
In other words, why not just use the same yogurt that the groats were soaked in?
Thanks much,
Kristin
Hi Chris,
Thanks for this great recipe. We’ve tried it and loved the pancakes. I’m wondering why you rinse the yogurt and add new yogurt?
Thanks,
Kristin
Hello,
Just curious, why buckwheat groats and not buckwheat flour? I’m new to all of this- thanks!
Groats are a whole-food, flour is processed and more likely to become rancid in storage.
Hi there!
Thanks so much for posting this recipe! I’m so excited to try this! I do have one question though. Is it necessary to rinse the groats, throwing away the yogurt? If so, I’m really interested to know why! I would think the yogurt is nutrient filled, and yogurt is already sour… so I wouldn’t worry about it being rotten. But what do I know hehe 🙂 Thanks so much!
Just seems like a “spike” in sheep’s clothing to me regardless of what degree of moderated carbiness you practice.
go on, have a pancake:)
Isn’t this an awfully large amount of carbs??
What’s wrong with carbs? I don’t subscribe to the view that everyone should be on a low-carb diet.
No, but is one the central tenets in nearly all of your topics. Also, I didn’t say everyone.
Jay: where in any of my topics do I advise a low-carb diet, except for certain conditions like GERD? Where do I say that carbs are “bad”? I have repeatedly pointed out that it’s the type – not the amount – of macronutrients that matter in most cases.
So, is this a paleo cheat? Per Mark Sisson’s post, buckwheat is a no-go:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-visting-family-primal-compromises-and-grain-alternatives/
As I said in the article, I think buckwheat is well tolerated by most when prepared this way. That’s my experience working with patients and also hearing from many people on the blog that have tried this recipe.
Tried this recipe and the batter was pretty runny even though I followed the measurements. The pancakes in the picture look compact, like they stayed where they were poured in the pan. Anyone else have this experience? How did you fix it?
Same here. I “fixed it” by switching to a small pan :).
Next time, I’ll skip adding the almond milk, like Chris recommended for thicker pancakes.
Made these this morning – freaken awesome!
1 year later, I feel my Paleo journey is complete.
Thanks Chris (and Melissa).
Loved your recipe – tried it with kefir – came out great – we ate it with nothing added but raw goat milk butter
Quick question – if soaking neutralizes the phytic acid – is it necessary to rinse the grains before blending or are there other toxins released during the soaking that require rinsing?
Hey Chris
This morning, all I had in the fridge was one extremely well boiled, almost pureed sweet potato and some eggs, plus butter.
I figure lets try making pancakes (or maybe crepes rather) so just whipping/mixing the squishy potato with two eggs using a fork, then frying with butter produced some really nice pancakes.
So good in fact, I recalled your buckwheat recipe which I havent gotten around to try yet. But this was so simple and good I had to post it here.