Little Women Buckwheat Cakes
Also called buckwheat cakes, buckwheats, yeast-raised buckwheat pancakes
Tangy, yeast-raised buckwheat pancakes started the night before, like the Christmas breakfast the March girls carry to the Hummels in Little Women.
- Makes
- about 14 pancakes, 4 servings
Inspired by Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868)
Ingredients
Pan sizes, times and temperatures in the method are not scaled.
The night before
In the morning
Method
The night before. Whisk the buckwheat flour (120 g1 cup), all-purpose flour (60 g½ cup), yeast (3 g1 tsp) and salt (3 g½ tsp). Stir in the molasses (21 g1 tbsp) and lukewarm water (360 ml1½ cups) to a smooth batter. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight, 8 to 12 hours. It will rise and bubble and smell pleasantly sour.
In the morning. Dissolve the baking soda (3 g½ tsp) in the warm water (30 g2 tbsp) and stir it into the batter. It will foam. The batter should pour easily; thin it with a splash of water if needed.
Heat a griddle or heavy pan over medium heat and butter it. Pour about ¼ cup of batter per cake.
Cook until bubbles cover the top and the edges look dry, about 2 minutes, then flip and cook 1 minute more.
Serve hot, with butter and maple syrup or molasses.
Notes
- Starter. In the 1800s a cup of batter was often kept back each morning to start the next night's batch, making the cakes more sour over time.
- All buckwheat. Use 180 g buckwheat flour and no wheat flour for gluten-free cakes; they are more fragile, so make them smaller.