Blueberry Banana Buckwheat Pancakes
I didn’t grow up in a house with a Saturday morning pancake tradition, but I’ve always been sweet on the idea. In my house now, Sebastian is the one with the golden pancake touch. And every time he announces that he’s stepping up to the stove, I like to remind him of the duties he will have whenever we finally have a brood: mixing batter and flipping cakes before a circle of hungry mouths.
That is one very powerful thing about growing up: you can re-make your family and your home life just as you’d like it.
I felt more like a New England farmhouse wife than a Brooklyn apartment-dweller the morning I made these. It was a weekday, and I rose earlier than usual in hopes of sending my husband off into the hardships of midtown fortified by a full stomach. The motivation was relatively selfless, but as it turned out, I ended up getting a quite a lot out of the deal: I really loved these pancakes.
But it wasn’t until I was reading Heidi Swanson’s new cookbook a couple weeks later that I saw the words “light” and “fluffy” paired with a pancake recipe and wondered if I’d gotten this particular rendition all wrong. These pancakes are neither fluffy nor light–rather, they are dense and filling, warm and homey with banana and bursting with little bright berry spheres. Top with almond butter and a wee drizzle of syrup, and we’re talking about a breakfast that will keep you powered for hours. Airy and ethereal? Sadly, no. But they serve a different purpose, and I’m trying to get better at accepting all things as they are instead of wanting them to be something else. These pancakes included.
One more thing: I did what I had read about many times in magazines over the years, freezing the leftover pancakes between layers of waxed paper for more sleepyhead weekday mornings. I dropped them in the toaster until the edges crisped up just ever-so-slightly and then finished them in the microwave.
Do you have a pancake tradition in your house, or did you grow up with one? And do you ever get ambitious with your weekday breakfast, like–wow–turning on the stove?
I was making these gluten and dairy-free, but you could easily sub the almond milk for cow’s milk.
Blueberry Banana Buckwheat Pancakes
adapted from The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook
makes 5-7 pancakes
1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups almond milk
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 ripe banana, lightly mashed
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
Stir together dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. In another bowl, combine almond milk, oil, maple syrup, and banana and stir. Pour into dry ingredients and stir together until combined (taking care not to overmix). Fold in the blueberries. Add more almond milk if the batter seems too stiff.
Heat a skillet over medium-low heat. Add a drop of oil to the pan and scoop 1/2 cup of the batter at a time into the pan and cook until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake. Flip, and continue cooking until cooked through. Keep an eye on the temperature to avoid burning. Repeat this process, adding more oil to the pan if necessary, until all the batter has been used.
Kristina Strain: Yay, a gluten-free pancake recipe! The buckwheat cakes I see are always *part* buckwheat, part regular flour. I’m not GF, but I have friends who are. These sound tasty.
We had a pancakes-after-church tradition when I was little (before we turned heathen!) in my house. Mom always sprinkled pumpkin seeds on top of the batter while the cakes cooked, which poked my mouth and hurt my tender toothing gums. I honestly didn’t like pancakes until I started making them myself, with blueberries.1 year ago
Erin: We made pancakes almost every Sunday morning. My dad was in charge of the griddle, and he never made circles – always weirdly shaped blobs, by pouring the batter out really slowly and all around – which we termed “Funky Shaped Pancakes”. It was awesome.
1 year ago
Cadi: We never had a pancake-specific tradition in our house, but I grew up with a pretty steadfast Sunday breakfast, which usually included big pans of fluffy eggs, sometimes quiche, and definitely bacon or sausage. And when times were really flush we would go out to breakfast, which was a real treat.
Nowadays the husband and I don’t have a breakfast tradition, but its one that I want in our lives, if for no other reason than to put some miles on the fancy.pants belgian waffle iron we got as a wedding gift!1 year ago
Kristina, Oooh, I love the idea of pumpkin seeds for non-teething gums. And probably if I had mixed in some regular flour these wouldn’t have been quite so dense. Another idea: part buckwheat, part oat flour (you can just grind up the oats in a blender or food processor).
Erin, I love that!
Cadi, Let’s just say that I hear you loud and clear on the wedding waffle maker!
1 year ago
Katy from DiningwithDusty: Love the line about remaking your family and creating your own home life and traditions; it’s so true!
We weren’t always a big pancake family either; my mom would sometimes wake up with pancake ambition, but that was more of a special occasion thing than a constant.
This past year, however, I’ve become a pancake fanatic. I make them at least once a week; recently I’ve been stuck on a Vanilla chai pancake (flavored with tea), but these will be on the list of pancakes I must make. I’m a sucker for blueberries.1 year ago
BethP: My dad makes the pancakes in our family, with bacon or sausage and real maple syrup, as his dad did before him (and still does). It was always such a big deal that my poor sister Laura choked down pancakes for years before she finally admitted at age 19 or so that she doesn’t actually like them. Now my dad always pretends to forget this fact and jokes around about it for about 15 minutes before finally frying her a couple eggs.1 year ago
Sense of Home: Love the tip about freezing pancakes for rushed mornings, thanks!
-Brenda1 year ago
outrageandsprinkles: We usually just did pancakes from a mix which was just fine by me. A couple years ago I decided to attempt buttermilk pancakes from scratch and they were amazing. I was really pleased that making them from scratch was not much harder than using a mix.
For me, an ambitious weekday breakfast is an omelet with all my favorites: mushrooms, bell peppers and cheese! Served with my favorite nine grain bread and I am a happy camper.1 year ago
Becs: We have a family pancake recipe created by my great uncle – Uncle Rudy’s Pancakes. My sister has had it memorized for years, and I have it written down in red pen on an old envelope that is now covered in flour and tucked away inside another cookbook. They’re a bit sweet and best small… then you can eat more!1 year ago
MrsWhitney: When I was growing up my mother did most of the cooking, except on the weekends. Every Saturday and Sunday, my father would cook brunch. He is Mexican-American from Texas, so we had a wide variety of foods ranging from scrambled eggs with chorizo to biscuits and sausage gravy. Occasionally, he would make pancakes with chunks of apples in them, which he called “applejacks” (I don’t know if anyone else calls them that).
Now that I’m married to a truck driver who’s not home much, I make a full breakfast everyday when he IS here to maximize the amount of home-cooked meals he gets. I have been known to make biscuits and gravy from scratch at 6am.1 year ago
Megan: The man and I have eggs for breakfast before work every morning – alternating between scrambled, over easy, and (one of our personal favorites) a plain omelette with schwarma spices, tucked into a pita with hummus. What a way to start the day!1 year ago
Katherine: Yummy!1 year ago