Buckwheat Pancakes with Winter Citrus {gluten-free with dairy-free option}

What’s your favourite meal when eating out? Mine would have to be breakfast slash brunch; I love the places that serve it all day! Whenever we stop at a café or restaurant for lunch, I always scope out the breakfast menu first… Should I have pancakes or Belgian Waffles with cream? Perhaps scrambled eggs on toast or Eggs Florentine! Sometimes we arrive just after the breakfast menu has closed… that’s always a blow. This would never happen at home. At home, it’s never too late for pancakes!

I already have a pancake recipe that I use regularly, but the other week I was given a challenge. My cousin, who now eats a gluten-free diet, had made buckwheat pancakes for her kids on a Sunday morning, and was devastated that they had been knocked back. “They were firmly rejected by the critics!!! They weren’t very tasty and quite heavy. May be my cooking skills!!

Do you have a good buckwheat pancake recipe that uses regular milk, not buttermilk?” she asked.

I did not, but it was all the excuse I needed! Before long, I had bought a bag of organic buckwheat flour, and begun the search for recipes. I didn’t have to look very far; Cookie and Kate’s was the first one I tried, and it was a winner! It uses buttermilk, but I would never buy buttermilk just for pancakes. You can easily make your own just by adding vinegar or lemon juice to the milk of your choice. As for a topping, berries are always nice, but it’s not summer here, and strawberries are $4 a punnet!

Yes, it’s still winter. The skies are grey, the temperature rather lower than one might wish. But one saving grace of the season is all the beautiful citrus fruit! The bright colours and tart juiciness contrast starkly with the cold, dreary days. My dad grows wonderful, tangy oranges and brought us a bucketful last week. They, along with pink grapefruit, tangelos and mandarins were peeled, segmented and piled atop our pancakes. Finished off with a drizzle of pure maple syrup, and we’re ready to eat!

Now that’s what I call brunch!

• More Citrus Recipes

Buckwheat Pancakes with Winter Citrus {gluten-free with dairy-free option}
Because buckwheat has such a distinctive flavour, which can take some getting used to, I’ve used half buckwheat and half all-purpose gluten-free flour here. If you don’t mind a heavier pancake, and/or are eating grain-free, use 100% buckwheat flour instead.

Makes 8 (14cm/5 ½ inch diameter) pancakes

Ingredients
½ cup buckwheat flour
½ cup plain (all-purpose) gluten-free flour
1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups buttermilk*
1 large egg
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon citrus zest
1 mandarin, peeled by hand and separated
1 tangelo, peeled by hand and separated
1 navel orange, peeled and segmented
1 pink grapefruit, peeled and segmented
{Use whatever citrus makes you happy}
Butter or coconut oil, for the frypan

Method
To segment oranges and grapefruit, simply cut off rind (including white pith) with a sharp knife, remove pithy core and slice into segments (wedges), removing seeds as you go. Prepare as much fruit as you need, and set aside.

Whisk together egg, buttermilk, vanilla extract and citrus zest. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the buttermilk mixture all at once to the dry ingredients. Beat together with a fork or whisk until well incorporated. The batter may be a little lumpy, but that’s fine. Let batter rest while you heat up the pan ready to fry.

Preheat your frypan over medium-low heat and brush with a little oil/butter. Give the batter a light swirl with a spoon in case the buckwheat is starting to separate from the liquid. Using a ¼-cup measure, scoop the batter onto the warm pan. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes (you’ll know they’re ready to flip when the surface is covered in bubbles and has turned from glossy to matte), and flip. Cook on the opposite side for 1 to 2 minutes, or until golden brown. Place cooked pancakes on an oven-proof plate in an oven heated to 100 degrees C/200 degrees F. This will keep the pancakes warm while you cook the rest.

Arrange the pancakes on a plate, and top with segmented citrus and pure maple syrup.

Note: *Make your own dairy-free buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to 1 ¼ cups of almond, soy or coconut milk and letting it sit for 5-10 minutes before using.

Pancakes adapted from Cookie and Kate and citrus topping from Joy the Baker

Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #redhotcentre!