Lots of crepe recipes use water instead of milk. You can use non-dairy milks, but I'd be inclined to try it using water and a little bit of olive oil. I think the milk's fat helps the batter come together and rounds out the taste.
I adore buckwheat, not just in pastries ans cakes but especially in bread. Admittedly given it’s lack of gluten it is challenging to bake freeform Tartine style loaves with it. In fact I have been trying to perfect a Tartine style buckwheat sourdough loaf for years. 5pc of buckwheat of total flour weight seems to be the sweet spot (for now and using the lower protein European flours I have access to) but it adds such a phenomenally delicious and complex note to bread!
And thanks for sharing this - has given me some new ideas for what else to make with buckwheat - haven’t made crêpes etc in ages!
Sophia - I have a buckwheat sourdough in the works for the book, will try to keep you updated on that! 5% is sort of the sweet spot for most non-gluten-forming flours, you can get away with that amount almost universally, but I suspect you can go higher with a bit of finesse.
Ooooh, that is good to know! And yes, I suspect you can add more. One option of course is to incorporate toasted soaked groats like Tartine does but I suspect with higher protein flours one might push the 5pc closer to 7.5 or maybe even 10!
What exactly do you mean when you say "lower protein European flours"? Most of my refined-flour recipes use something close to T55 flour, around 11.5% protein, which is usually more than enough.
Yes, that is what I have access to as well and it works fine. But I understand in the US you can easily find flour with protein content of up to 15pc which I assume would make it easier to increase the amount of gf flour in recipes where you rely on gluten for structure.
We can, though most bread flours are really closer to 13%. (So called "high-gluten" flour, at ~15%, is not something people can buy in supermarkets.) But I rarely need to reach for it. I usually find bread flour *too* strong and think you can get excellent results using lower protein flours. The reason we have stronger flours here is because much of the wheat is grown for industrial bread making, where intensive mixing is the norm.
Glad that buckwheat has your eye! I use 10% buckwheat in Adrian Hale's Communal Bread recipe -- a pan loaf that uses as much whole grains as you want. I know I've used 10% rye and 10% buckwheat once, and the loaf came out fine -- the rest was high-extraction stone ground bread flour and whole wheat.
Thank you, I will have to check out that recipe! And yes, I think in a pan loaf you could probably get away with a higher percentage of buckwheat or other glutenfree flours.
I use buckwheat in several breads (also in that Tartine-style porridge bread with buckwheat groats), but Epicurious published a recipe for wonderful Strawberry Buckwheat Bars, and David Lebovitz’ Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies are my favorites.
Btw, in Northern Maine also an albino variety of buckwheat is cultivated.
Buckwheat pancakes are one of my favorite things ever.
You made me see, and want, a stack of buckwheat cakes pronto!
Buckwheat tea is my current favourite way to beat the heat. Seems so much more refreshing than just water.
I'm curious - does dairy milk play a specific role in the process of leaving the batter to sit, or could a non-dairy substitute still work?
Lots of crepe recipes use water instead of milk. You can use non-dairy milks, but I'd be inclined to try it using water and a little bit of olive oil. I think the milk's fat helps the batter come together and rounds out the taste.
I adore buckwheat, not just in pastries ans cakes but especially in bread. Admittedly given it’s lack of gluten it is challenging to bake freeform Tartine style loaves with it. In fact I have been trying to perfect a Tartine style buckwheat sourdough loaf for years. 5pc of buckwheat of total flour weight seems to be the sweet spot (for now and using the lower protein European flours I have access to) but it adds such a phenomenally delicious and complex note to bread!
And thanks for sharing this - has given me some new ideas for what else to make with buckwheat - haven’t made crêpes etc in ages!
Sophia - I have a buckwheat sourdough in the works for the book, will try to keep you updated on that! 5% is sort of the sweet spot for most non-gluten-forming flours, you can get away with that amount almost universally, but I suspect you can go higher with a bit of finesse.
Ooooh, that is good to know! And yes, I suspect you can add more. One option of course is to incorporate toasted soaked groats like Tartine does but I suspect with higher protein flours one might push the 5pc closer to 7.5 or maybe even 10!
What exactly do you mean when you say "lower protein European flours"? Most of my refined-flour recipes use something close to T55 flour, around 11.5% protein, which is usually more than enough.
Yes, that is what I have access to as well and it works fine. But I understand in the US you can easily find flour with protein content of up to 15pc which I assume would make it easier to increase the amount of gf flour in recipes where you rely on gluten for structure.
We can, though most bread flours are really closer to 13%. (So called "high-gluten" flour, at ~15%, is not something people can buy in supermarkets.) But I rarely need to reach for it. I usually find bread flour *too* strong and think you can get excellent results using lower protein flours. The reason we have stronger flours here is because much of the wheat is grown for industrial bread making, where intensive mixing is the norm.
Interesting! I wasn’t aware of the connection between those flours and industrial bread-making but it makes sense now that you mention it!
Glad that buckwheat has your eye! I use 10% buckwheat in Adrian Hale's Communal Bread recipe -- a pan loaf that uses as much whole grains as you want. I know I've used 10% rye and 10% buckwheat once, and the loaf came out fine -- the rest was high-extraction stone ground bread flour and whole wheat.
Thank you, I will have to check out that recipe! And yes, I think in a pan loaf you could probably get away with a higher percentage of buckwheat or other glutenfree flours.
I use buckwheat in several breads (also in that Tartine-style porridge bread with buckwheat groats), but Epicurious published a recipe for wonderful Strawberry Buckwheat Bars, and David Lebovitz’ Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies are my favorites.
Btw, in Northern Maine also an albino variety of buckwheat is cultivated.
Ooh, is that the tartary buckwheat? I've never heard it called albino. And yes, buckwheat is great in sweets! I'll have to try those CC cookies.
Just checked Bouchard Family Farm’s website - they call it light buckwheat, not albino. But it is a special variety, not sifted.
Do try the cookies, chocolate and buckwheat are a match made in heaven 😊
Love buckwheat, but it has fallen out of my rotation. I need to do something about that!
In Münsterland (Westfalia) buckwheat pancakes are usually made with cold black coffee instead of milk.