Buckwheat Pancakes

When I was a kid, my parents used to make these weekend breakfasts. You know how in the movies and television, there are always these families having breakfasts of pancakes and bacon and juice and sitting around the table like they actually like each other? Well, in our family, we actually did that. It didn't always end well--sometimes there were fights or someone stormed off angry or something--but that's because this is reality and that's how life in a real family actually works.

I remember that my dad used to cut up fruit for us on a separate plate. Usually, we ate the fruit first while we waited for whatever else was being served. We alternated meals. Sometimes, we had eggs. Sometimes, pancakes or waffles--in regular, sweet potato, or buckwheat varieties. On occasion, my mom used to make this really amazing peach thing--I have no idea what it was called. All I know is that I found it delicious.

Not that long ago, I found myself craving buckwheat pancakes. I'm not sure why I wanted them. It just came out of the blue. When I thought about it, I realized that it had probably been something like ten years since I'd actually had a buckwheat pancake. Ten years is certainly long enough, so yesterday, while we were out and about, Tony bought some buckwheat flour in preparation for big day when I was going to try my hand at making them.

I didn't really have a plan on when I was going to make them, but then our friend Nikki came over yesterday. The subject of pancakes came up because she asked if we could still eat pancakes. Random side note: let me just say I'm grateful for friends who ask questions about being vegan rather than judging it. I would rather answer questions all day than deal with one person scoffing about my life and my choices. Anyway, I figured since pancakes had come up so very recently and I now had all the stuff to make them that this morning would be as good a time as any.

I used a recipe that I found on Pinterest just because I didn't feel like experimenting too heavily as of yet. You can find the recipe here. Plus, if you have me on social media, you know that this week's been a little crazy for us. The baby was sick on Tuesday. Yesterday, I had enough of an ear infection that I was diffusing essential oils and laying in bed with apple cider vinegar in my ear. It's better today, but I still have a little something going on. So today was not exactly a day for me to experiment. It's more of a lay-in-bed-with-the-heating-pad-pressed-to-your-head kind of day.

This recipe is good, but it wasn't great. The pancake batter was a little thick at first, so I added some extra almond milk and some extra applesauce to make mine a little looser because I tend to like a thinner pancake batter. I did use unsweetened applesauce as the recipe called for, but I didn't do it on purpose. We happened to have some, so it just worked out that way. In the future, I think I would actually use applesauce that had some sweetener just because I really think that these needed that extra sweetness.

I also found, technique-wise, that there was more of a need for me to spray the pan with the cooking spray between each pancake than there usually is for traditional pancakes. I mean, I was using a non-stick pan, so I didn't really have to, but the pancakes got a much more appealing look and outer texture when I did use the cooking spray. So I would say to each their own, but I really preferred it that way.

The recipe does produce eight to ten pancakes, as promised. I ended up with eight good sized ones and a ninth small one. If I'd made the others a little less large, I'd have had ten, but I like big pancakes (and I cannot lie). The recipe was also super easy and had a total of five ingredients, all of them easily accessible and readily available. It was simple to follow, but then again how many pancake recipes out there really get all that complicated?

I think this recipe was a good start. It produced good, consistent results. I just felt like it needed something. It needed more sweet. These were Tony's first introduction to buckwheat pancakes. He liked them enough to have them again, but he also agreed that they needed a little more sweetness.

We'll have to see about altering this recipe for future use, maybe adding something to it. Maybe I'll just look at some other vegan buckwheat pancake recipes and cobble a few together to make my own. Who knows? What I do know is that this satisfied a craving I'd been having for a while now. I kind of forgot how much I enjoy buckwheat pancakes. They have this really good earthiness, and they're so satisfying. The protein content helps them stick with you a little longer, I think. The next step is going to be working on those sweet potato pancakes, and before you know it I'll have my breakfast game on point for when Josephine is a little girl. Maybe I can ensure that she carries forward some good memories of weekend breakfasts into her adulthood too.