Buckwheat cookies

Buckwheat cookies

On the tube back home this evening, I just managed to get a seat and sat down and then saw a pregnant lady. Asked her if she wanted a seat and she said yes. Was about to get up when the guy next to me said he would give her his seat! I thought how gallant of him - well partly so and partly because he got off at the next stop!

Anyways... seeing that my buckwheat pancakes tasted quite good, thought I would go I step further and try making cookies. Googled on the internet and still was not sure, so I decided to go with my shortbread cookies recipe and instead of using plain flour just change to buckwheat flour. Only thing I can advise is if you are going to try out this cookie, after mixing, the mixture might not seem to bind together, but as there is no gluten, there is no worry about overmixing. But mix into 2 batches and you will be ok. The what I did was roll out the dough and cut them out using cookie cutters. The result? Rob and I liked it, but Katrina and Pat were not sure about it.

Buckwheat Banana pancake

Buckwheat Banana pancake

Firstly, to explain what buckwheat is:

Buckwheat is an ancient seed which was first cultivated in Asia thousands of years ago and is ground and used in a very similar way to the more traditional wheat berries. Buckwheats name is quite confusing as it is nothing at all like our traditional wheat in any way. It is not a grain and it does not contain the same proteins and gluten. Buckwheat is naturally gluten and wheat free with a nutty taste. It is very nutty and pleasant when eaten roasted as a seed and makes a great flour when ground down. It can be used in a similar way to wheat flour for baking and thickening.

I just wanted to make buckwheat pancakes for the longest time, but could not find buckwheat flour anywhere until a couple of weeks ago when I found it at Sainsbury!

Made it for breakfast a couple of mornings ago and it tasted good, so here's the recipe for anyone wanting to have a go.

Note: The first time I made it, I used 1 egg but this morning I made it without egg but with milk. Both taste just as good, so it's up to you which you want to use!

Ingredients:
200 gms buckwheat flour
50 gms sugar
300 mls milk or 1 egg
1 banana mashed

Method:
1. Mash the banana in a bowl. Add the buckwheat flour, milk or egg and sugar. Stir until well mixed and mixture is soft like cake batter.
2. Heat a little oil in a fry pan and when hot, drop big spoonfuls of the batter into the pan. When bubbles appear on the surface, turn over and cook for about a minute, then dish out.