Home › Sunday Morning Breakfasts › Old-Fashioned Buckwheat Cakes
Old-Fashioned Buckwheat Cakes
1/2 yeast cake 1/4 cup warm water 1/2 cup cornmeal 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups boiling water 1/2 cup flour 1 cup buckwheat 1/2 cup milk 1/4 teaspoon baking soda Dissolve yeast in warm water. Scald the cornmeal and salt with the boiling water. Beat well, and when cool add the flour, buckwheat and dissolved yeast. Let stand over night. In morning, pour off discolored water on top of batter, and dilute batter with the milk and baking soda. Grease griddle lightly, bake small cakes quickly. Beat the batter and add more milk and baking soda if needed. A tablespoon of molasses is good with the batter. The griddle must be well greased for these cakes, and it is a good idea to save cup of batter for the next day's batch.
An overnight sourdough-style batter that only works if you respect the two-stage build: a scalded cornmeal mush, then flour, buckwheat and yeast on top of it. The morning additions of milk and soda are what make the cakes rise on the griddle rather than in the bowl.
- Yeast cakeHalf a compressed yeast cake corresponds to roughly 1 teaspoon of active dry or instant yeast. Compressed cake yeast is still sold in some markets but is far less common than it was; dry yeast dissolved in the quarter cup of warm water (about 105F) behaves the same here.
- "Buckwheat" means buckwheat flourThe one-cup measure is flour, not groats. Light or "silverskin" buckwheat flour gives a milder cake; dark whole buckwheat gives the grey, assertive cake the name promises.
- Scalding the cornmealTwo cups of boiling water on half a cup of cornmeal makes a thin gruel. Beat it smooth and let it cool to lukewarm before the flour and yeast go in, or the heat will kill the yeast.
- The overnight standRoom temperature, covered, 8 to 12 hours. The dark liquid that separates on top is mostly water carrying alcohol and acids from the fermentation; pouring it off, as directed, tempers the sourness. A warm kitchen ferments faster and sours harder.
- Why the sodaThe quarter teaspoon of baking soda neutralizes the acid built up overnight and gives lift once the batter hits heat. Batter that stands after the soda goes in loses some of that lift, which is why the recipe has you beat it and add more soda as you go.
- Griddle heat"Quickly" means a hot griddle, hot enough that a drop of water dances; the recipe gives no temperature. Buckwheat batter is thin and spreads, so keep the cakes small and turn them once, when the surface loses its gloss.
- MolassesThe optional tablespoon is for color and flavor, and supplies a little sugar for browning after the overnight fermentation.
- The saved cupHolding back a cup of batter as a starter for the next morning is the traditional practice. Refrigerate it, and use it in place of the yeast, adding it after the cornmeal mush has cooled.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; roughly a dozen to sixteen small cakes, enough for two or three at breakfast.