Buckwheat Flour and Recipes Thread

[BakerAunt]

Buckwheat Flour
A couple of months ago, I bought some soba noodles that were on sale and used them with some leftover meat and vegetables for a quick dinner. My husband and I both liked the taste, so we added it to the dinner repertoire. Then, I was looking at tortillas in the store and did not like what they had and decided to take a chance on some buckwheat-millet-flax wraps that were lower in fat than the wheat ones. Well, we liked those too. I decided that it was time to invest in a bag of buckwheat flour, which I did, and today we had the Buckwheat pancakes in the King Arthur Wholegrain cookbook (although I did substitute honey for the molasses). They are light and delicious. I will definitely make them again, especially with the health benefits of buckwheat that I have learned about, and we do like the taste.

I have noted, however, that there are not a lot of recipes that use buckwheat flour. I searched the KAF site and found only two, neither of which I will likely make. I then searched this community's recipes and found just one: Buckwheat Oat English Muffins. I plan to try that one soon and will post the result when I do. I went to the Bob's Red Mill site, but those recipes are geared for gluten free, and I do not have need of gluten-free recipes. A number of their recipes require using their mixes, and I like to avoid mixes.

I noted in searching the community site that this topic has come up before, but seemed to hit a dead end on locating recipes--other than those that are gluten-free--that incorporate buckwheat. It seems strange, because in reading up on buckwheat, I learned that it was, until the twentieth century, grown in much larger quantities. Surely they were not just making pancakes?
posted by: bakeraunt on May 04, 2014 at 1:10 am in General discussions

reply by: Cindy Leigh on May 04, 2014 at 9:09 am
I'll be looking forward to replies, because I've got 4 bags of buckwheat flour in the pantry. I use mine for pancakes and add small amounts to other things like breads.

reply by: Mike Nolan on May 04, 2014 at 12:05 pm
If you search the 19th century equivalent of the Internet (eg, a good library), you'll probably find plenty of recipes using buckwheat flour. I suspect you're correct that most of the recipe available online that use buckwheat flour are likely to be found coded as 'gluten-free' recipes.

reply by: sarahh on May 05, 2014 at 10:09 am
I like buckwheat too, and it is hard to find recipes. Bernard Clayton's "New Complete Book of Breads" has a few bread recipes with it. He has one called "Bauernbrot" that is outstanding. It calls for a rye sour, but he includes directions for an overnight sponge with yeast that you can use instead – that is what I used. It makes a dark, soft bread with a distinct flavor of buckwheat. I have also tried his "Buckwheat Bread" and it is very good.

I have also had good luck substituting it for about 1/4 of the flour in a white bread recipe. It doesn't have gluten, so you can't use too much or the bread doesn't have enough structure.

Interested to hear what else you find!

reply by: janiebakes on May 05, 2014 at 11:06 am
I looked in Laurel's Kitchen Bread book and she feels that buckwheat is a better addition to breads as a cracked grain (buckwheat groats) than as a flour. She has several recipes I could post if you are interested.

reply by: bakeraunt on May 05, 2014 at 5:41 pm
Sarahh--Thanks for the referral to Bernard Clayton's bread book. I have both the original and the revised editions, so I will check it out.
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Mike--I am not sure my university library has a collection of old cookbooks, but I did the next best thing: I started looking through what I own. I looked at the 1936 Fannie Farmer cookbook and the 1946 Settlement Cookbook that belonged to my husband's mother and her mother. The only buckwheat recipes in those are for griddle cakes.

I then decided to look at Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery. She quotes Law's Grocer's Manual, 2nd ed. (c. 1902) which observes that "throughout the United States, buckwheat is largely made into cakes or crumpets, and eaten for breakfast hot from the baker's. These cakes have great renown, but being deficient in gluten the flour cannot well be made into bread." She comments that buckwheat was grown in the midland counties of England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and she observes that the French use buckwheat in crepes (773-774).
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In a later chapter on Yeast Leavened Pancakes and Oatcakes, she observes that "flours such as barley, buckwheat, oatmeal," were perfect for "cottages and houses lacking an oven, bread was in any case baked on a griddle or a hearthstone or bakestone." So, maybe most of the barley flour was being used in some kind of pancake, with the whole barley used in soups and stews. In addition to not requiring an oven, it would not have required perhaps as much fuel for cooking.
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My next stop were some of the wholegrain cookbooks that I bought in the 1980s, before people were discussing gluten-free baking. I have found a couple recipes in one that do call for buckwheat flour that I plan to try (hence my question in another thread about substituting for Bran Buds). I will check the other ones this evening.
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Once again I have embarked on a baking quest....

reply by: BakerIrene on May 05, 2014 at 3:28 pm
You can boost the buckwheat flour with Vital Wheat Gluten to bake good bread. I would use 2 ounces gluten to each pound of buckwheat flour.

I LOVE the taste of buckwheat on its own or mixed with other grains. It makes a superb pie crust for meat pies with just a little garlic powder added.

reply by: kaf-sub-rius on May 05, 2014 at 3:42 pm
I would make all kinds of pastas and freeze them. I've made buckwheat noodles, ravioli, etc. They're great.

reply by: Cindy Leigh on May 05, 2014 at 4:43 pm
Have you tried buckwheat HONEY? Delightful strong flavor.

reply by: Mike Nolan on May 05, 2014 at 5:10 pm
Buckwheat honey is so strong that it doesn't work well as a syrup, IMHO.

reply by: BakerIrene on May 05, 2014 at 5:50 pm
Most buckwheat honey is about 60% buckwheat and 40% clover/other when you count the pollen grains (used to be my job...). It is excellent for baking honey cakes and cookies. Some people ask for it. It is more easily adulterated so you have to buy it from a reputable source.

reply by: bakeraunt on May 07, 2014 at 11:09 am
Here's a muffin recipe from The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook, by Jean Hewitt (1971). These are small muffins and not that sweet. They are best served warm. If I make them again, I may try substituting half canola oil for half the melted butter. My husband had one warm from the oven. He felt that they need to be served with butter and honey. I tried one cold this morning--ok but not great. I warmed up the other one and put some butter on it--as I would with corn bread, which I never eat cold --and it was very good.
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Buckwheat-Corn Muffins
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1 cup buckwheat flour
.
1/2 cup corn meal
.
2 1/2 tsps. baking powder
.
1/2 tsp. sea salt
.
1-2 Tbs. brown sugar (I used 2 Tbs. light brown sugar)
.
2 eggs
.
1 1/4 cups milk (I used nonfat)
.
1/4 cup butter, melted (I used unsalted)
.
Preheat oven to 400F. Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In another small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and melted butter. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Note: This makes a very thin, almost pancake-like batter. Fill 12 greased or paper lined muffin tins. Bake 15-20 minutes. (I baked for 20).
#
I will be trying another buckwheat-corn muffin recipe from a different cookbook and will report back on that one when I do.

reply by: janiebakes on May 07, 2014 at 4:02 pm
There is a buckwheat/cornbread recipe in Joy of Cooking. I also found a recipe for Buckwheat Cream soup in Madelene Kamman's book, When French Women cook. Let me know if you are interested.

reply by: bakeraunt on May 07, 2014 at 4:07 pm
Janiebakes: I would be interested in the Buckwheat-Cornbread recipe. My favorite way to eat leftover cornbread is to cut a piece, warm it up, then split it and pour maple syrup on top. I think that a buckwheat-cornbread would work much better for this than a small muffin. Thanks!

reply by: janiebakes on May 07, 2014 at 6:22 pm
Here you go! From Joy of Cooking 1979 edition

Buckwheat Cornbread

Pre-heat oven to 425. Grease pan with butter, oil or bacon drippings. Place in oven until sizzling hot.

Sift together
3/4 AP flour,
2 1/2 tsp double acting baking powder
1 to 2 Tbl sugar
3/4 tsp salt
Add 3/4 cup white or yellow stone ground cornmeal
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup of sunflower seeds (optional)
.
.In a separate bowl: 1 egg beaten with 1 cup milk and 2-3 TBLs melted butter or drippings.
.Combine with a few rapid strokes and place batter in the hot pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve immediately.

reply by: Cindy Leigh on May 07, 2014 at 8:26 pm
BakerIrene, what a fascinating job! I've been getting my buckwheat honey from Whole Foods. I really love it drizzled on pancakes. My "regular" honey is from a friend in town who keeps bees. It's raw honey although he says "organic" is a misnomer because you really never know where your bees are going. It has what I describe as a "beery" flavor. Like the smell of beer.

reply by: bakeraunt on May 09, 2014 at 3:37 pm
Janiebakes: That recipe is almost the same as my standard cornbread, except for the inclusion of the the 1/2 C of buckwheat flour. I think that I will try making my cornbread with the buckwheat. Thanks for posting the recipe. I never would have thought of that on my own.

I have gotten my husband interested, on a scientific level (not just an eating level!) in buckwheat. I was reading aloud facts about it to him, and he was fascinated to learn that it does not do well in nitrogen-rich environments and hence does not grow well where modern fertilizers are used. He is a plant physiologist and currently has a research project on invasive wetland grasses, and apparently, nitrogen is an issue there. He just sent me a note that he has been reading more about nitrogen and has learned that spinach and lettuce easily accumulate nitrogen, so that the European Union actually limits how much nitrate fertilizer can be added to the crop.

reply by: janiebakes on May 09, 2014 at 5:24 pm
Years ago I grew buckwheat as a cover crop over the winter. I let it bloom and form a few seeds before I dug it under. The bees just loved it. I never added commercial fertilizer to that garden. Just compost and cover crops. The year before I grew the buckwheat, I grew red clover. My children, who were small at that time, cried when I dug in the clover. "NOOOOO mommy. The flowers are so pretty." Bees also liked the clover.

Do you have the Bread and Bread Machine Bible? One year a number of us on the BC found that book for cheap and were baking from it. My son gave me a copy. (The best $1.99 I ever spent he said.) Anyway, there is a recipe for a buckwheat walnut bread in there. It looks like a sandwich bread. I will post the ingredients for that. I bet you will know what to do.

For a medium loaf
3 tsp molasses
1 1/2 cups water
2 TBSP walnut or olive oil
3 3/4 cups unbleached bread flour
1 1/2 TBSP milk powder
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp easy blend dry yeast
1/2 cup walnut pieces.

I noticed that the proportion of wheat to buckwheat flour fits the ratio that Sarah recommended.
Thanks for starting this thread. It let me get reacquainted with my cookbooks. I had a good time looking through them and marked some recipes to try soon. The funny thing is my sister has a 5 pound bag of buckwheat flour in her pantry. Someone convinced her to try it, and she bought the large economy pack only to find that she hates the flavor. C'est la vie!

reply by: Cindy Leigh on May 10, 2014 at 3:47 pm
oooh! I've got all those ingredients in the pantry!

reply by: bakeraunt on May 12, 2014 at 3:04 pm
Ok, that bread recipe is now on my list to try. Thanks, Janiebakes. If anyone (Cindy Leigh for example) beats me to it, please post your results.

This weekend I made a double batch of my wholegrain waffle recipe. It started out as a cornmeal waffle recipe I found in a cookbook, but it has evolved to include whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and flax meal, with a reduction in the butter from 16 to 10 Tbs. (with 2 Tbs. canola oil added). As of this weekend, it now includes some buckwheat flour.

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• This topic was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by BakerAunt.

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