Buckwheat flour gives these light, fluffy buckwheat biscuits great nutty flavor and a nutritional boost as well!
I’m like a kid in a sandbox when it comes to playing with all the different textures and flavors of whole grain flours. And if you’re only used to lily white biscuits (good for sure) you’re going to be blown away by these buckwheat biscuits. Still soft, still flaky, but with so much more flavor. And how cool to get that nutritional boost as a little freebie benefit ~ I’ll take it!
My buckwheat biscuits are made with a ratio of 1 part buckwheat to 2 parts white flour. The dough has a rich gray color with black specks (the ground up hulls of the buckwheat seed) running through it. It deepens as it cooks and the distinctive specks are beautiful. These are tender and amazing and the flavor is warm and nutty ~ perfect for fall soups and stews ~ I literally can’t wait to have them with my Finnish Salmon Soup, or maybe my Split Pea Soup with Ham.
why bake with buckwheat?
Buckwheat flour is:
- higher in protein, fiber, and essential minerals like magnesium and manganese than all-purpose flour
- it has a lower glycemic impact ( more blood-sugar-friendly)
- buckwheat flour is gluten free and so makes baked goods extra tender
- aaaaand it gives these buckwheat biscuits a rich nutty flavor that AP flour can’t touch!
Buckwheat isn’t actually wheat at all, it’s a seed (called a groat) from a plant in the rhubarb and sorrel family! For a long time it’s mostly been tucked away in specialty food stores, but lately it’s sneaking back into the regular flour aisle, and I’m here for it (Thanks Bob’s Red Mill!)
food processor method for buckwheat biscuits (so easy!)
This same method can be used for other butter based biscuits and scones.
- Pulse dry ingredients in your processor to combine.
- Add cold butter, in pieces, and pulse/process until the butter is incorporated and the mixture is like coarse sand.
- Add the liquid ingredients and pulse/process until the moist dough comes together in a lump.
biscuit cutting tips
Use a sharp-edged metal cookie or biscuit cutter. Do not use a drinking glass or other blunt object.
Cut as many biscuits as you can from the first patting out of the dough. Reformed dough will yield denser buckwheat biscuits.
Cut straight down into the dough and lift straight back up. Do not rotate or twist the cutter because that can seal the edges of the biscuit and prevent a good rise.
Let your cut biscuits chill for about 15 minutes while you clean up. This will ensure they rise well in the oven.
buckwheat biscuit variations
Add 1/2 cup of finely chopped parsley (or a lesser amount of thyme or rosemary) to the dough along with the liquid ingredients.
Sub white whole wheat flour for the AP flour for a truly whole grain biscuit.
Top the biscuits with fennel, caraway, dill, or rye seeds before baking.
Sub maple syrup for the honey.
If you especially love soft biscuits you can bake them fitted into a pie plate or plates. Grease the pie pan and don’t fit them in too tightly, allowing room for them to rise and expand in the oven.
Buckwheat Biscuits
Equipment
- Sheet pan
- parchment paper or silpat mat
- 2 1/2" biscuit cutter
Ingredients
- 2 cups AP flour
- 1 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 12 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces
- 1 1/4 cup cold buttermilk, shaken
- 2 Tbsp honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Put the dry ingredients in the bowl of your full sized food processor, and pulse to combine.
- Drop in the butter pieces and pulse/process to incorporate the butter and create a coarse crumbly texture. There should be no large chunks of butter remaining.
- Add the buttermilk and honey and pulse/process just until the moist dough comes together into a lump. This will happen quickly.
- Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and pat it into a fat disk, about 9", use floured hands if the dough is sticky.
- Cut out biscuits with a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter. Cut them as close together as possible. You can gently reform the dough scraps to cut the rest of the biscuits. Place the biscuits in the refrigerator for 15 minutes while you clean up.
- Bake on parchment or silpat mat 2 inches apart for about 5 to 6 minutes until the biscuits start to rise, and then turn down the heat to 400 and bake another 8 to 10 minutes just until fully risen and lightly browned. Don't over bake! Note: I bake my biscuits in two batches for more even baking.
- Enjoy your biscuits warm or at room temperature. They will last covered on the counter for a couple of days, or they can be frozen for up to 3 months. A quick 15 seconds in the microwave will revive a leftover biscuit.
Notes
Nutrition
what we’re serving with buckwheat biscuits
I had a lot of trouble with this recipe. I have many of your recipes and biscuits. It didn’t come together ar all and was sticky.. had to add more than a 1/2 c of apf. I did use white whole wheat and buckwheat . Wet and sticky.. they are baking now. Not sure how they will turn out
It could have been the white whole wheat flour, which is significantly different in composition from AP flour. It does tend to make dough stickier. Try with all purpose next time, you’ll also get a lighter biscuit. Alternatively you could try using 1/2 white whole wheat and 1/2 AP for a more whole grain result. You might need to reduce liquid a tad.
So tender! Loved these and they came together so quickly and easily.
Buckwheat flour is one of the tenderest flours I’ve ever baked with. So glad you enjoyed these!
Enjoyed these biscuits very much. Nice texture, and not realizing I did not have enough gluten free flour, ended up cutting recipe in half, easily done and turned out very well.
Thanks recipe worked well.
Oh my lord these were amazing! I received a small bag of buckwheat flour from my grandmother, and this was the first recipe I ever tried with buckwheat in it, and let me tell you I am impressed, these are going to become a staple from now on! (:
I’m so glad you loved these Larissa, they’re a favorite of mine too!
The recipe was a good start on making buckwheat biscuits from hulled buckwheat cooked the night before, leftovers from the evening meal that replaced potatoes by steamed hulled buckwheat.
How to do it: chop the cold refrigerated cooked buckwheat in a blender/chopper until it looks like flour. The cooked buckwheat should be dry, no liquid, before chopping/grinding. The rest of the recipe is the same, adjusting salt if the cooked buckwheat was salted.
The first trial, which made excellent biscuits, used 130g buckwheat (prepared as above) and 100g flour, 50g butter, 100g sour cream, milk to adjust wetness. Other values: 1 Tbl baking powder, 1 tsp soda, 1 tsp sugar/honey. The dough was not rolled: spooned to 12 biscuits cooked 10-12 min in preheated 400F/200C oven /w fan. The wet biscuits on the baking tray looked like macaroons.
Modifications: Replace buttermilk by sour cream. + milk. Add milk to match the liquid in the recipe. The result is a soft, moist biscuit browned on top with flavor of buckwheat.
Trying two cups buckwheat and one cup flour instead
Two snack size unsweetened applesauce in place of butter
Let us know!
Although the original recipe was more divine, these will definitely do!
I didn’t see a great deal of difference, actually.
I made these biscuits to accompany the German Potato Soup which we liked, but personally I liked these biscuits even better. Now, first of all I should say I LOVE BISCUITS! These are a bit fragile because of all the butter but oh so delicious. We had them heated up the following morning, split and topped with poached eggs.
Thanks Edith, I can just imagine them with the poached eggs, yum 🙂
another recipe of buckwheat flour AND white bread flour. America’s addiction to white bread.
Because these are biscuits I do like the addition of white flour for texture, but you can certainly make these whole grain if you like!
Wallace, I sincerely don’t understand how your comment is useful.
My wife loved these but I modified the recipe a little: 1 cup each of white flour, whole wheat and Buckwheat. No way would I use 12 TBs of butter, It turned out fine with 6 TBs butter and 6 of EVO, my processor is to small for 3 cups and overheats when trying to do dough so I used a big mixing bowl and my pastry knife to cut the butter into the flour, I used 3 TBs of honey instead of 2 (2 buckwheat honey and 1 wildflower), I added 2 TBs of ground flax meal and 2 TBs of nutritional yeast. There seems to be a difference in temps in different parts of the recipe, I did 425F for 5 and 400F for 8.