My buckwheat flour obsession shows no signs of slowing down. Between buckwheat recipe e-book 1, buckwheat recipe e-book 2 and my gluten free buckwheat bread, I’ve learnt a lot about the flour. And you know what? The more I learn, the more I love. Buckwheat is such a great gluten free grain and the flour is such an asset in the gluten free baking arsenal. It’s great for using as the only flour in some gluten free recipes, which is what we’re doing with these banana buckwheat pancakes

Banana buckwheat pancakes (gluten free)

These banana buckwheat pancakes are made with 100% buckwheat flour. They are xanthan gum free, nut free and can easily be made straight in the blender. The pancakes are thick and filling, with that subtly nutty buckwheat flavour. If you enjoy buckwheat flour, you’ll love these pancakes.

Substitution options

I’ll get this one out of the way early. Not sure why you’d click on this recipe, but if you don’t like banana there is an option. These recipe is adapted from my 100% buckwheat pancake recipe in my first buckwheat e-book. That recipe uses yoghurt instead of banana. It differs from this one, though, so you can’t just sub yoghurt into this recipe.

There is no substitution for the eggs at this stage sorry. I haven’t figured out why, but all my egg free buckwheat pancake tests have gotten stuck to my pan in a big way. The eggs seem to help the batter disengage from the pan. I am still working on it, though!

Even with ripe bananas, I think the sugar here is necessary. They are still not overly sweet. I use light brown sugar as I find it compliments bananas nicely. I daresay panela sugar would also work. For those who don’t have issues with fructose, you could also try coconut sugar.

Are these buckwheat banana pancakes low FODMAP?

They can be. Ripe banana is low FODMAP in 35g serves person. This recipe uses 200g (ideally) ripe banana and makes around 8 medium pancakes. This means you can eat just over one pancake and remain under a low FODMAP serve.

One pancake is a rather offensive serve, however, so there are options.

My preferred option is to use ripe sugar bananas. Sugar bananas (sometimes called Lady fingers) have a much higher FODMAP threshold, even when ripe. 112g ripe sugar banana is a low FODMAP serve. Monash doesn’t currently specify an upper limit.

This makes ripe sugar bananas a fantastic option here as you get the best of both worlds. A good hearty serving size without restriction and the unparalleled flavour of ripe banana.

If you can’t find any sugar bananas, you can use just ripe or underripe common bananas. These are low FODMAP in 100g serving sizes. I would recommend serving these with extra maple syrup as they might be on the more bland side.

Can I make these buckwheat banana pancakes with dark buckwheat flour?

I don’t know! I have never been able to find dark buckwheat flour here in Australia. Light buckwheat flour is the one commonly found at the supermarket. Unfortunately, I haven’t come across dark buckwheat flour in health or bulk food stores either.

Light buckwheat flour is made from hulled buckwheat, while dark buckwheat flour is made from unhulled buckwheat. Whether this makes a difference in the absorbency of the buckwheat, I don’t know for sure.

Another thing I’m not sure of is whether this effects the FODMAP content. I know that tahini made from hulled sesame seeds is lower FODMAP than unhulled sesame tahini, which is why I mention it.

Can I make these buckwheat banana pancakes without eggs?

Unfortunately not at this stage. As discussed in the substitution section, I have not been able to develop an egg free buckwheat pancake recipe.

For whatever reason, the versions I test without eggs get stuck to the pan irrespective of how well I heat it. I’m unsure as to the science behind it, but it seems that the eggs form a barrier that enables you to easily dislodge the pancake from the pan.

I promise to keep working on it, but I haven’t succeeded thus far.

Can I use frozen bananas in these pancakes?

I have used half frozen banana in a test trial of these pancakes. Unfortunately my freezer stash of ripe bananas was not large enough for a full batch.

That said, it worked nicely. I might recommend mixing the batter by hand, just in case your frozen bananas are waterlogged. This way you can add slightly less milk to counter balance the added moisture.

More gluten free buckwheat recipes

• Gluten free buckwheat bread
• High protein gluten free buckwheat bread
• My buckwheat recipe e-book #1 (which contains 10 all buckwheat recipes including choc chip cookies, pancakes and chocolate cake)
• My buckwheat recipe e-book #2 (which contains 10 all buckwheat recipes including buckwheat bagels, brownies and oreos)
• Buckwheat wraps