Roasted Pecan Buckwheat Pancakes

Maple sugaring season is upon us and we are surrounded with farms producing this sweet nectar.  This season we bought syrup from an Amish farmstead near where we live.  They have hundreds of buckets strewn among the maple trees and the smoke wafts out of the sugar shack.  The cart is hooked up to a pony and in turn the pony pulls that through the woods as the buckets are emptied into a larger vessel on the cart.

We have never tried the maple syrup from here and didn’t know what we were about to experience.  The syrup is the best I can recall ever having—it tasted more like caramel than maple syrup.  It is dark, thick and not overly sweet.  I immediately knew pancakes would be on the menu for the next morning.

The prior weekend I had been at a local farmers market and purchased some buckwheat flour from a farmer who has been certified organic by the state.  The flour is somewhat coarse and the pancakes have a nuttiness and even a bit of crunch from the course grind of the flour.  These were outrageously good! 

Adding salted, roasted pecans to the mix and topping them with orange zest butter sent them over the edge.  I used soy milk, if you want to make them vegan omit the butter and replace the egg with flax meal mixed with water.

1 ¾ cup buckwheat flour

1 TBS sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup chopped pecans

½ tsp cinnamon

2 cups buttermilk *

2 eggs

¼ cup canola oil

Combine dry ingredients (including chopped nuts) in a small bowl.  In a large bowl whisk together wet ingredients.  Add dry to the wet ingredients, mix only to combine and set aside for 10 minutes.  Keep pancakes warm in oven until all are finished. 

*buttermilk lends a tang.  I add 1 TBS lemon per cup of soy milk, almond milk or flax milk.  The milk will curdle from the lemon, it’s a natural occurrence.

Orange zest butter:  combine zest of 1 orange to 3 TBS butter.

The quality of flour really makes a difference in these.  I used organic flour from Mud Run Farm: