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How To Make Buckwheat Pancakes

	Just about everyone is familiar with the breakfast pancake.
Every day, people enjoy them in restaurants and homes worldwide.  Few
people, however, are as familiar with their hearty counterpart, the
buckwheat pancake.  These are cakes made with buckwheat flour, a variety
of flour known for its dark color and rich flavor.  While buckwheat
cakes are made in much the same way as conventional pancakes, there are
key differences in their manufacture that few people are aware of.  With
the recipe that follows, it is possible to make delicious cakes that can
be enjoyed any time of day quickly and easily.
	First, one must obtain buckwheat flour.  This is available at
most health food stores and in the gourmet section of many grocery
stores.  While the quality of buckwheat flour varies greatly, there is
little way to predict the quality of the flour before you taste it.  It
is best to experiment with a few different kinds until you find one that
you like.  Finding good flour is essential to making good cakes, and
this is the handicap of pancake mixes: they all use bad flour.
	When a suitable flour has been found, it should be blended with
regular flour two parts to one.  Cutting the buckwheat with conventional
flour does not diminish its flavor, and cakes made from pure buckwheat
tend to be heavy and flat.  For every three cups of this composite
flour, add one tablespoon of baking powder, and a pinch of salt.  At no
time in the manufacture of buckwheat cakes are any eggs or yeast used.
	To the flour mixture, slowly add skim milk until the mixture is
a liquid.  The total amount of milk added should about equal to the
amount of flour that has been used, but because of differences in flour,
there is no exact measure of the correct amount.  Instead, judge the
amount of milk by the consistency of the batter; it should be a liquid
which is not thick enough to hold its shape yet not so thin that a pile
of it does not form on its surface when it is spooned onto itself.  It
takes some practice to judge the proper consistency correctly, but when
this has been achieved perfect cakes will be produced every time.
	Finally, let the batter sit while a griddle is heated to a
medium-high heat.  Place about two tablespoons of margarine on the
griddle to melt.  When it has melted, pour the excess oil into your
batter, stir briefly, and begin pouring cakes onto the griddle.  It is
time to turn the batter when bubbles have stopped forming on the top.
	Butter, while essential to the enjoyment of regular pancakes,
really just clutters the flavor of a good buckwheat cake.  The perfect
complement to a good buckwheat pancake is real maple syrup.  Heaven save
the fool who would put imitation syrup on a buckwheat cake, or
experiment with the recipe by adding chocolate chips, berries, or
something else he once found in a conventional pancake.