Cooking Baking Eating

My dear friend Marcy is a nutritionist, so I figure for the most part she’s a good influence on me when it comes to food. But I think that just comes with the territory of her job and her lovable hippy nature.

Once when we went to visit her and her husband, she mentioned making waffles with this recipe that involved buckwheat groats and steel cut oatmeal. It’s supposed to be for pancakes, but she was on a waffle kick and it still worked fine. She liked it because it’s supposed to be really nutritious and also the added bonus of being gluten free. Not that gluten is really a worry for her, but it still made her happy all the same.

After I heard about several of my friends having to change their diets to exclude gluten I asked her for the recipe, I figured it would be fun for me to try something gluten free, and then I could share it with those I care about! I thought finding buckwheat groats would be difficult, but they had them in the bulk section of my local store, yippee!

There are pros and cons to this recipe. A pro is that you can make it all in the blender, I like that can just set my blender to pulverize instead of having to mix it by hand. Unfortunately the con of this recipe is that you have to start making it the night before. Now for most people that’s not really a huge problem, but I find myself annoyed every time I have to plan ahead for something.

I mean what am I going to do if I wake up the next morning and just don’t feel like pancakes?

I’m finicky like that, it’s quite obnoxious.

Evidently the soaking of the oats and groats will not only soften them enough to blend, but it also makes it easier to digest and more nutritious since the groats will sprout, according to Marcy. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it sounds believable. She’s the nutritionist so I’ll just accept it.

After blending I tried the recipe two ways, as pancakes and waffles. For some reason I wasn’t as enthused about them as waffles. I didn’t feel like “yay waffles” after trying them. They were alright and totally edible, but the pancakes were so much better to me.

Maybe I was just in the mood for pancakes that day.

The flavor was really good. It was nutty and just slightly sweet. I’m not a huge fan of maple syrup, but these tasted even better after a tiny bit of maple on it. The texture was also really great. They weren’t dense and chewy as I thought they would be, but a light and fluffy texture.

The one tip I have for making this recipe is to let the batter sit for a bit after blending. Right after it’s blended it was really thin and watery. I’m not sure if I added too much water to the mix to help it blend or not, but after letting the mix sit for a while it thickened up and was a lot better for making pancakes. I think I let it sit for about 10-15 minutes. Next time I’ll add less liquid and see if that helps it.

Overall I would make these again. I think next time I’ll make a huge batch like I do for the cinnamon oat pancakes and freeze them for later, that way I can have these pancakes when I get the craving.

Oats and Groats Pancakes
Makes 6-8 pancakes depending on size. Slightly modified from Cookus Interruptus’s recipe

• 2/3 cup steel cut oats
• 1/3 cup raw buckwheat groats
• 1/2 cup plain fat free yogurt
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

1. Combine the oats, buckwheat groats, yogurt and water in blender.
2. Cover and let soak overnight (6-8 hours) in the fridge.
3. Next day, add remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. The mixture might be hard to blend so add a little water or milk as needed to get it moving.
4. Cook in 1/4 cup batches on a preheated and oiled griddle or pan until golden brown (about 2 minutes).
5. Eat immediately! Top with maple syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream or fruit. I think bananas would be very tasty with this nutty recipe.