Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Zucchini Pancakes
I kind of have a thing for pancakes.
It started as a weekend tradition. A carry over from growing up making Saturday morning silver dollar pancakes with my mom- loading them up with every topping in sight.
Then it morphed into an occasional weekday thing. A way to make a weekday feel more like a weekend.
And then it turned in to a way to recover from an especially rough night with baby. A way to tell myself, hey it’s ok you were up 36.374 times last night, you have pancakes!
I won’t tell you how many batches of pancakes I’ve made in the last 6 months.
After stumbling down the stairs in a half awake state at the ungodly hour of 5 something AM, I trudged over to the corner cabinet in the kitchen that holds the answers to my sleepless nights: pancake making supplies. Flour, baking powder, chocolate chips. {Always chocolate chips.}
Only the flour containers were empty. I’d forgotten to stock up, again. The grocery store closest to my house, and therefore most frequently visited, stopped selling whole wheat flour. They sell Adirondack chairs and California rolls, but no whole wheat flour. An extra trip to another store just doesn’t happen that often.
So instead of my usually go to whole wheat or spelt flours, I dug through the depths of the baking cupboard and came up with an almost empty container of buckwheat flour.
I’m not the biggest fan of buckwheat. It’s a little heavy and bitter, and the taste can over power delicate baked goods like pancakes. But with a little bit of trial and error, I made it work.
This is a gluten free recipe. Ironically enough I ended up going gluten-free the day after I made them. Good thing I already had a go-to recipe up my sleeve. I’ve since come up with another banana spice version {which I’ll share another time}, so I’m good to go in the pancake department. 
The good thing about this gluten-free pancake recipe is that it doesn’t require any strange ingredients. Ok, buckwheat isn’t necessarily a pantry staple for everyone. But no rice flours, bean flours, or gums involved in these yummy pancakes.
Buckwheat Zucchini Pancakes
Ingredients
- 3/4 c buckwheat flour
- 1/4 c cornmeal flour {ground cornmeal, or just use cornmeal as is}
- 2 T cornstarch
- 1 T flax meal
- 1 t baking powder
- ½ c zucchini, shredded
- 1/2 c almond milk
- 1/4-1/2 c water
- 2 T molasses
- 1/4-1/2c mini chips
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- sprinkle of allspice & cloves to taste
- Optional: 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Instructions
Combine dry ingredients.
Stir in zucchini, wet ingredients, and spices. Start with 1/4 cup of water and add more as needed. Amount will vary depending on zucchini and preference. A thicker batter will make fluffier pancakes; a thinner batter will make smoother, less dense pancakes.
Optional: add half a mashed banana or applesauce to increase moisture content
Pour batter onto medium-hot griddle. Cook pancakes a few minutes on each side.
Apparently pancakes weren’t enough carbs; I had to make muffins too.
Are you a pancake person? Eggs? Waffles? Cereal? I obviously vote pancakes. With chocolate. The only time chocolate is required in my book.
Check out tiny sneakers today to see how we’re approaching starting solids with food allergies.
