Kim Boyce's Pear and Buckwheat Pancakes

I went on a little Book Depository spree a while back, and the purchases have gradually trickled into our mail box. First, Heidi Swanson's perfectly beautiful Super Natural Every Day showed up, David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, and finally Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain, stuffed full of baking ideas using alternative grains and flours. Bye bye wheat flour... helloooo buckwheat.

Buckwheat has a dark, full and earthy flavour. Stirring up the grey-ish batter was a tad alarming but they fried up well in a pan that had been rubbed with butter, their edges golden and crisp with a fluffy centre, flecked with slivers of grated pear. It's hard not to be sold on these, for better or for worse.

My Grandmother owns a little piece of land in the Southern Highlands of NSW, which is shared between all of us. In a corner of a far paddock, the gardener there keeps beehives filled with bee's that circle Sutton Forest, dipping in and out looking for flowers. Every once in a while he gives us all a few jars of the deeply floral, amber honey that he collects from the hives and a generous drizzle (or puddle) was smothered over these pancakes this morning, talk about bang for your buck... wheat.

It's mother's day tomorrow, I think she would like these.

Pear and Buckwheat Pancakes

adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce


1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup whole grain plain flour
3 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 1/4 milk
1 egg
2 ripe but firm pears, peeled


Sift and combine both flours, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the melted butter, milk and egg together in another medium bowl until well combined. Using the largest grating side of a box grater, grate the pears over the bowl of wet mixture so the pears and juice fall into the bowl. Add the pear mixture to the dry ingredients, and fold in gently with a spatula to combine. Be careful not to over-work the mixture. The batter should be slightly thick flecked with shreds of pear. The batter is best when used immediately, if you leave it overnight in the fridge it will be very thick and you will have to thin it out a little with a tablespoon at a time of milk.


Heat a large frying pan over medium heat, and rub it with butter (the butter is key to lovely crisp edges). Dollop the batter into the pan, cooking two or three at once. Once the mixture starts to bubble, flip them over and cook on the other side until they are golden, about 5 minutes all up. Keep warm while you cook the rest of the batter, eat immediately drizzled with honey.