Baking With Buckwheat

New Flours, New Flavors

I’m bored with baking, baking with wheat flour that is. Last year, I stumbled upon a case of faro and chestnut flours in my work kitchen and played around with pound cakes, muffins, and sponge cakes. As wheat flour has formed with basis of baking traditions in the United States, it was hard to find reliable recipes and baking information. (It was even harder to explain to a dining public cultured on wheat flour that chestnut flour contains neither nuts nor gluten…never mind its name). Although I’ve experienced more frustration than success, the challenge of baking with alternative flours has made baking fun again as intriguing flavors and unusual textures breathe new life into old recipes.

Although the gluten-free movement has effectively demonized gluten, the upside is that many alternative flours like barley, spelt, and emmer, once the province of the hippie food co-op, can now be bought from mainstream supermarkets. But in spite of their widespread availability, most of these flours have been traditionally used in savory preparations and there are many misunderstandings when it comes baking with them.

Take buckwheat, for example.  Buckwheat has an assertive earthy flavor that, while an acquired taste to some, has formed the basis for some of the world’s most iconic dishes: Russian blini, Japanese soba noodles, and savory Breton crepes. But in spite of its name, buckwheat is not wheat. In fact, the seeds are neither cereal nor grass but a fruit that is related to wild rhubarb. Like wheat, buckwheat seeds can be milled into a flour. But unlike wheat, buckwheat doesn’t contain the gluten-forming proteins that provide stability and structure for baked goods. Though it’s been a staple of gluten-free baking for many years, buckwheat-based baked goods were traditionally (and rightly) maligned as dry and crumbly. It’s no wonder then that, until recently, it was easier to find buckwheat pancake mix than it was to find the actual flour!

The Trouble with Buckwheat

Mincing words has never been my strong point so I’ll just say it: buckwheat can be a fickle bitch.  The dry, crumbly texture that worked perfectly for a cookie sabotaged my efforts at sponge cakes. Sometimes my cakes were gummy and dense, and at other times the texture was akin to a lethal projectile. Clearly, a mere swap of buckwheat for wheat flour was not going to cut it.

Rule #1: One would think that a finely milled flour would produce a tender cake but this is not the case with buckwheat. Lighter, finely ground buckwheat flours must be mixed quickly and lightly or they turn to mush so use them for cookies and sponge cakes where mixing must be kept to a minimum. Use coarsely ground buckwheat flour for creamed cakes, batters, and scones.

Rule #2: Buckwheat flour works best in blends. As Alice Medrich advised, you cannot swap eight ounces of wheat flour with eight ounces of buckwheat flour; it’s not a straight trade. The lack of gluten-forming protein that makes buckwheat a boon for gluten-free baking means that it cannot form a stable structure to help baked goods rise. Unless you are using small amounts of buckwheat flour, buckwheat works best when blended with wheat flours, high-protein binders like eggs, or sweet starchy flours like oat, rice, sweet potato and arrowroot. You will need to tinker with the ratio of buckwheat in the flour blend to find the right balance.

Rule #3: Buckwheat tends to be dense. Even creamed buckwheat batters will benefit when whipped eggs are folded into the batter or leavened with baking powder.

Flavor Pairings with Buckwheat

Earthy flavors and robust ingredients go hand in hand so it’s no surprise that the assertively earthy notes of buckwheat pair well with walnuts, coffee, chocolate, honey and strong spices. The bitter notes of buckwheat can also be toned down by pairing with cooked fruit (especially apples, pears, quince and persimmon) or the intense sweetness of caramel and dried fruit (especially prunes and dates). Another complement to buckwheat’s bitterness is the acidic tang of crème fraiche or the sweet warmth of a vanilla bean.

 

THE RECIPES

 

Buckwheat Sable

Yield: 593 grams dough

 80 grams egg yolks

170 grams granulated sugar

5 grams salt

130 grams unsalted butter, softened and at room temperature

90 grams all-purpose flour

90 grams organic buckwheat flour

8 grams baking powder

Sift flours and baking powder and set aside. Whip yolks, sugar and salt until light and fluffy.  Add butter and mix until butter is blended. Fold in sifted dry ingredients. Place dough between two sheets of greased parchment paper and roll to desired thickness. Chill overnight. Cut as desired and bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit in a convection oven.

 

Buckwheat Ice Cream

Yield:  3 quarts ice cream base

1000 grams heavy cream

400 grams buckwheat groats

1000 grams milk

250 grams jaggery (or demerara sugar)

250 grams granulated sugar

8 grams salt

280 grams egg yolks

40 grams buckwheat honey

Toast buckwheat groats until they are golden brown and smell nutty. Mix the warm kasha into cold heavy cream and infuse overnight. The next day, strain the mixture through a chinois pressing down lightly to avoid making the infusion overtly bitter. (The soaked kasha can be cooked into a porridge and incorporated into breads and muffins.) Bring the buckwheat infusion, milk, salt and sugars to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the sugars have dissolved. Combine the egg yolks and buckwheat honey. Temper into the milk and cream mixture and cook as for a crème anglaise. Strain the base, cool in an ice bath and chill overnight and process in an ice cream batch freezer. (For added texture, you can reserve 100 grams of the kasha before soaking, coarsely grind it, and fold into the finished ice cream.)

NOTE: Kasha is roasted buckwheat groats. If using kasha instead of the buckwheat groats, you can simply combine the kasha and the cream, warm the mixture, and infuse overnight in the refrigerator.

 

Buckwheat (Squash) Scones

Yield: 18 three-ounce scones

2 kabocha squash

4 ounces apple cider

12 ounces all-purpose flour

9 ounces buckwheat flour

7 ounces granulated sugar

2 T baking powder

2 t salt

6 ounces butter

16 ounces heavy cream

Quarter squash, deseed, and steam until the squash is barely tender. Peel, dice and cook the squash in apple cider until most of the liquid has evaporated. Set aside the squash to cool to room temperature. Blend the flours, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until small crumbs have formed. Drizzle the heavy cream over the butter mixture and mix just until a dough has formed. Gently fold in the cooked squash. Place dough between two sheets of greased parchment paper and roll to one-inch thickness.  Chill for one hour (or overnight). Cut into 3 inch squares, brush with buttermilk and top with coarse sugar. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit in a convection oven until the center of the scone feels firm, about 12 to 18 minutes.

 

Buckwheat Sponge Cake

Yield: one half sheetpan or one tube pan

 This is Alice Medrich’s recipe from her latest cookbook “Flavor Flours”, an excellent primer on using wheat-free flours to move beyond dietary substitutions and add new flavors to baked goods. (Hopefully, she won’t mind me reprinting it here but it is such a perfect recipe and I don’t mess with perfection.)

6 eggs

200 grams granulated sugar

2 grams salt

85 grams buckwheat flour

80 grams rice flour (not glutinous)

110 grams neutral oil (vegetable, canola, grapeseed)

Whip eggs, sugar, and salt to ribbon stage. Combine flours and sift 1/3 over the whipped eggs. Fold into eggs gently. When the flour is almost mixed into the eggs, sift another 1/3 over the eggs and fold in. Repeat with remaining flour. Temper ¼ of the batter into the oil and fold back into the remaining batter. Bake in a tube pan at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 to 45 minutes or in 4 ounce ring molds for 12-15 minutes. Invert when cooling to maintain the cake’s structure.