My grandpa used to make buckwheat pancakes.  He would serve them up slathered with butter and Blackstrap Molasses and say “That’ll stick to your ribs”.  My grandfather delighted in having grandchildren to fatten up.  I have asked around, and no one in my family seems to know exactly how grandpa made his buckwheat pancakes, so I started trying recipes.  This one from the food blog Wrightfood produces fluffy nutty pancakes with nice crispy edges.  Wrightfood also has some amazing recipes for home curing meats (my grandpa would have approved) and is well worth checking out.

I like to eat these pancakes with butter and Sorghum syrup, which is readily available in Tennessee where my husband’s family lives.  Sorghum is an African grain and the syrup made from it has some of the intense flavour of molasses, but it is lighter in colour and bit sweeter.  I am in love with it.  I once made THE BEST sticky buns with sorghum and I also like to bake yams in it.

We have also been eating these pancakes with sour cream, smoked fish and borscht.  They are very blini like.  Real blini involve yeast and all of the hocus pocus that comes with yeasted foods.  Sadly,  almost every yeasted dough I have ever made has turned out inedible.  I am a good and careful baker and I have decided that the only explanation is interference from kitchen sprites.  Whatever, I don’t need yeast fairies….these pancakes use baking powder and they work fine as blini.

BUCKWHEAT PANCAKES (GLUTEN-FREE)

from Wrightfood

• 1 cup of buckwheat flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2/3 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of sea salt
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup (I used sorghum syrup)
• 1 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 tablespoon of melted butter, plus more butter for cooking
• 1 egg

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
2. Separate the egg into two bowls.
3. Add the syrup, milk and melted butter to the egg yolk and whisk to combine.
4. Using a clean whisk, whip the egg white until it is fluffy and just set.
5. Add the yolk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to combine completely.
6. Carefully fold the egg white into the batter and stir with a spatula until it is just combined.  Try not to knock too much of the air out of the eggs whites.
7. Heat some butter in a large heavy bottomed skillet.  When the butter is hot drop 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter into the pan and repeat until your pan is full.  When the pancakes form some bubbles flip them over and cook them for a few more minutes.  Remove to a warmed tray and cook the rest of the pancakes.  This recipe makes about 9 pancakes.  
8. Serve with warmed molasses, maple syrup or sorghum syrup and butter or serve with sour cream, smoked fish and borscht.