Certain food preparations can help increase nutritional content of foods. Such food preparations include sprouting (see: sprouted wheat crepes, sprouted sunflower seeds, sprouted wheat cookies), soaking and fermenting (see: guest post on fermented foods, ) grains, nuts, seeds and legumes. These practices are all beneficial as they help to neutralize anti-nutrients as well as increase nutritional content of the food being prepared.
Buckwheat, which is a seed rather than a grain (a pseudo-grain) is gluten-free. For more information on buckwheat and how fermenting it results in an easier-to-digest and more nutritious pancake batter, have a read of Stephan Guyenet’s post ‘Real Food XI: Sourdough Buckwheat Crepes‘.
Recipe: Fermented Buckwheat Pancakes with Biodynamic Currants & Cultured Butter
Adapted from Stephan Guyenet’s ‘Sourdough Buckwheat Crepes‘.
Ingredients:
to ferment-
- 1 C. buckwheat flour
- 1/2 c. leben yoghurt + whey* mixed into 3/4 cup full cream milk
- water, extra
*I used whey that had separated at the top of the yoghurt.
to make the pancakes-
- 3 eggs
- coconut oil or butter to cook with
- cultured butter** and currants to serve
**I used Ballantyne branded cultured butter.
How to:
- Add buckwheat flour to a bowl. Mix together yoghurt, whey, milk and water and then combine well with the flour to form a pourable batter. Place a plate over the bowl and leave overnight or up to 24 hours to soak and ferment. I left it to ferment for around 18 hours.\When ready to make the batter beat the eggs with the fermented buckwheat batter. Heat butter or oil in a pan, spoon some of the mixture into the hot pan and cook until brown on both sides.
- Serve with currants and cultured butter.
How does it taste?
The inclusion of dairy milk and the act of fermenting the batter does seem to give the pancakes a much milder taste than if the batter was without milk and wasn’t fermented (so good for those who wouldn’t normally like buckwheat). The fermentation also seems to make the pancakes quite light and fluffy. So I have to say these pancakes were definitely a success and I will be making these again!
I’d love to know what you think of this recipe,
Michelle.
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Linked up to Fight Back Friday, Vegetarian Foodie Fridays
Michelle
Health Food Lover is Michelle Robson-Garth. Michelle is a degree-qualified Naturopath (BHSc) and Massage Therapist. She is also a passionate writer, recipe-creator and all-round foodie from Melbourne, Australia. © Copyright: 2009-2012 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com. Read the disclaimer here. Have a look at the recipe index for more health food lovin’ recipes. Join the Facebook page & follow Health Food Lover on twitter.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
These look awesome! Just wondering how you would go about fermenting buckwheat without the use of dairy? It is one of my all-time favourite super-seeds.
Hey Katey. Thanks :).
Okay the way to ferment buckwheat flour without a dairy:
You can do it a few ways:
Soak the buckwheat flour and water for around 2 days on the counter with salt until it gets bubbly (and therefore fermented)
or
Use water-kefir ‘grains’ to ferment the flour for around 24 hours.
or
You can use some bakers yeasts to ferment it.
Let me know if you try any of the ways, I’d love to know if you do!
Michelle.
Or one more way:
You can use a sourdough starter to ferment the buckwheat flour (have a look at the link in the post).
Awesome, thanks heaps! Flour + salt sounds pretty darn simple to me, even I, fast/easy/lazy recipe queen, may be able to work with that!
Sure thing Katey. Let me know how it works out for you!
How delicious those look! I love currants! My mom got me hooked on them as a snack instead of raisins when I was little I could eat them all day long! Thanks for linking up at Vegetarian Foodie Fridays!
Thanks Mel. I know what you mean about currants, they are pretty addictive! Thanks for stopping by :)
This recipe is very tempting. I’ve tried making pancakes using fermented whole wheat flour and a similar recipe. The taste was a little bitter, and the pancakes didn’t turn out fluffy at all. I’m going to try your recipe, since now we’re looking for gluten-free options, and I know fermentation makes sense. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
-Mary
Hi Mary,
I hope this recipe works out for you. Let me know how it goes.
Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle.
I just noticed when copying the recipe that there is no levening. So, does the fermentation provide for the fluffyness?
-Mary
Hi Mary.
Great question. As a result of the bacteria from the yoghurt breaking down the glucose in the buckwheat it produces gas, Co2 which provides for the fluffiness and elevates the mixture. So yes you’re correct the fermentation does provide for the fluffiness.
My mouth is watering right now…This looks so absolutely fabulous! The perfect breakfast after a day on the lake!=)
Thanks Healy! A day on the lake…how romantic!!
Thanks for sharing this great recipe. I just adore healthy desserts with blueberries. I usually eat plain yogurt with fresh blueberries for dessert, but now I will try these pancakes. Hopefully I will be as good as you in baking. Greetings from another healthy food lover.
Hi Michelle
I made these this morning and there were delicious. I used 1/ 1/4 cups of milk kefir and it sat on the bench for a couple of days (cool weather here) until it started to bubble up and almost doubled in size. I used two eggs and a touch of maple syrup, some nutmeg and cinnamon. Everyone loved them.
Thank you for posting this recipe.
Hi Erica, I’m so glad you all loved the recipe! And thanks for letting me know :).
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