Buckwheat Flour: Choosing It for Crêpes, Pancakes and Baking
Buckwheat flour is milled buckwheat, with a distinctive grain-like flavour that can be part of a dish's appeal rather than something to disguise.
Buckwheat flour is milled buckwheat, with a distinctive grain-like flavour that can be part of a dish's appeal rather than something to disguise. It is used in preparations such as Breton-style galettes, pancakes and baked foods.
Despite the name, buckwheat is not wheat. That does not mean every buckwheat recipe or packaged mix is wheat-free: many formulas combine flours.
Plain flour or pancake mix?
A bag of buckwheat flour is an ingredient. A buckwheat pancake mix can contain other flours and additional ingredients intended for a complete batter.
Birkett Mills lists plain flour products and a separate buckwheat pancake mix. Match the product to the recipe rather than assuming the word buckwheat makes every bag equivalent.
A useful first dish: a thin crêpe
King Arthur's buckwheat crêpe recipe is an example of a preparation developed for buckwheat flour. The liquid, resting and pan method are part of achieving a thin, flexible result.
Follow one full batter recipe. A thick breakfast pancake and a thin galette need different handling, even if both use the same flour. Pouring a thick pancake batter more thinly is not always the same as preparing a crêpe batter.
Watch the complete ingredient list
If avoiding wheat or gluten, check the actual flour and every ingredient in the formula. A buckwheat title does not establish the proportions of a blend, and the base grain's identity does not establish a packaged product's suitability.
Baking with it
Choose a recipe that deliberately includes buckwheat rather than exchanging an entire wheat-flour allowance without adjustment. A flour's flavour is only one part of its role; dough structure and hydration matter too.
For an introduction to the whole ingredient, see buckwheat groats. In the baking cupboard, label the flour separately from groats and any ready-made pancake mix so that the right product reaches the bowl.