Buckwheat Pancakes

It seems like it's been a while since I shared any recipes here, but I've got quite a few new ones in our regular rotation. So I'll try to get some of those (and maybe some of the new ones I try going forward) posted here.

When Mark and I first got married, I agreed to learn how to cook, but I warned Mark that he shouldn't expect me to cook breakfast--it would be cereal or he'd have to do it himself. In reality, he often drove through for fast food, but that's changed over the last couple of years. Occasionally, I would cook something like breakfast burritos for dinner, then he'd have leftovers in the morning. A year or two ago, I started making a breakfast casserole on the weekend for him to reheat during the week. Then he learned how to make scrambled eggs and frozen hashbrowns on his own. Back in September or October, though, the meal plan we were on had a recipe for pancakes, which felt like a really indulgent treat at the time, so I went ahead and made pancakes for breakfast. It may not have been the first time in our married life, but certainly the occasions that I'd cooked breakfast in the morning were extremely few and far between. As it turned out, we weren't crazy about that particular pancake recipe, but we really liked the idea, so I cobbled together my own recipe instead. After some tweaking, we settled on the recipe below, and it's turned into a Saturday morning tradition.


Buckwheat Pancakes

Ingredients
1 cup buckwheat flour (find online at Amazon or in specialty grocery stores like Whole Foods)
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons coconut oil (can probably substitute vegetable oil or butter, though I haven't tried)
1 1/4 cup almond milk (or dairy milk)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons honey

1. Combine the dry ingredients.
2. Cut in the coconut oil.
3. Combine the wet ingredients.
4. Combine dry and wet ingredients and stir until well mixed.
5. Meanwhile, preheat two large skillets and spray with oil.
6. Pour approximately 1/4 cups of batter for each pancake (I can fit 3 in each skillet).
7. Cook about 1-2 minutes on each side.

Yield: 15-18 small/medium pancakes, 3 servings

Serve with pancake syrup or maple syrup.

Optional toppings: nuts, fresh fruit

To avoid additional sugar, you can also make fruit-based syrup. Two options we like are:

• A very ripe mashed banana with cinnamon and a bit of water to thin it out.
•  Berries--fresh or frozen--heated on the stove and mashed up a bit to make a syrup

Note the cute heart-shaped pancakes made with pancake molds from my stocking at the Cook family Christmas this year--thanks again, Mom!