Sassy Saturday Buckwheat Pancakes

Boy, I am a catch.

Ok, so I've finally come up with a buckwheat pancake recipe that I find flavorful and healthy! Believe you me, darlings, I have made some terrible pancakes in the last 6 months. (and if you know me at all, you know that pains me deeply, as I am totally awesome at pancakes.) I finally just decided to stop following other people's recipes and alter my own favorite pancake

recipe. The page in my mother's cookbook where this recipe comes from is one of my favorite things on Earth. The cookbook opens to the page when dropped, because it is coated in old batter spatters and drops of food coloring...pink for Valentine's day, green for St. Patrick's day...it's like a post-modern road-map of my youth. If Jackson Pollack wanted to say something about me childhood, he would need to look no further.

Anyway, here's the recipe. Cook, eat, love.

Sift together:

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

2 Tbsp flax seed meal

2 Tbsp pecan meal

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 1/2 tsp no-sodium baking powder

There are some coarse things in this mix. I used a whisk to work them through the sifter, then dumped the last couple of tablespoons of yummy pecan chunks, etc in anyway and gave it all a little whisk. Feel free to skip the sifting, as I usually do; I just wanted as even a consistency as possible while refining my technique.

In a smaller bowl, mix:

1 cup skim milk

3 Tbsp melted and cooled extra virgin coconut oil (feel free to sub vegetable oil or butter...mmmm...butter...)

1/4 cup egg beaters (1 egg equivalent)

1 tsp amber agave nectar

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (optional: I like adding the applesauce for flavor, but it makes the consistency of the pancakes a little gooey inside after cooking. I tried it both ways this morning, and definitely prefer the with-applesauce option, but if you want a very fluffy pancake, skip it. Also, be aware that the batter will be thicker than normal pancakes, and if you don't add the applesauce, the pancakes will not bubble when it is time to flip; you just have to keep an eye on the underside.)

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and combine with a couple of strokes. The batter will seem runny for a minute, but thicken quickly. (It's all that baking powder.)

Now heat a skillet and spray with cooking spray, or coat with a little butter for more flavor. Dole out batter (about a 1/4 cup per pancake). I added about a tablespoon of frozen wild organic blueberries to the top of each one right after putting them in the pan. I highly reccommend adding some fruit, but the pancakes are good without as well!

I served mine with a little butter (oooh yeah!) and some sugar-free maple syrup.