Buckwheat-Brown-Rice Waffles (Gluten-Free)

My Saturdays start out with tons of plans but very little planning. All through the week I  keep in my head a running list of all the things I just have to do on that glorious day filled, at least from afar, with nothing but time. It's the day I will sleep late. The day I will call those friends I've been meaning to for weeks now. The day I will finally run that important but easy-to-put-off errand.

But come Saturday morning, it's quite a different story.

Well before the alarm can go off the cats start singing for their breakfast at the door and the dogs start licking our faces in hopes of getting us out of the house for a walk. Soon, unable to sleep with all this activity, either Desi or I gets up and gives in. And from there on the day pretty much spirals into a madly busy flurry of things that just have to get done, including a super-long walk for the irrepressible wag-tails.At the end of the day, though, it still feels like nothing really did get done.

In the midst of all this activity, I try my best to make breakfast a little more special than it usually is, although I just as easily give in to Desi's invitation of oatmeal.

This past weekend, I did find the time to cook up a recipe that had been floating in my head for a while now: a gluten-free waffle richly nutty with buckwheat and crispy with brown rice flour.

Each time I make waffles, I try to make them just a little different. But I realized I almost always include wheat flour, either whole-wheat flour or whole-wheat pastry flour. This time I substituted the wheat with buckwheat which really has no relation to wheat. It is a darker-colored, rich-tasting wholegrain flour that's a pretty popular addition to gluten-free pancakes and other desserts.

I also threw in some brown rice flour which I love because I knew they'd make the waffles crispy, which I also love. Some oat flour, which always adds a fresh, clean taste and lots of healthy goodness, also went in. The waffles turned out beautifully although they did take almost twice as long to get perfectly done in the waffle iron than my whole-wheat waffles usually take. We polished them off with some of the Apricot-Walnut Syrup left over from the previous Saturday's crepes.

Here's the recipe now. Enjoy, all!

Buckwheat-Brown Rice Waffles

(Makes 4 servings of 2 waffles per person)

Dry ingredients:

1 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 cup oat flour

1/4 cup brown rice flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Whisk these together in a bowl and set aside.

Wet ingredients:

1 1/2 cups soy milk mixed with 1 tsp vinegar and set aside to curdle, about 5 minutes

2 tbsp ground flax whisked with 6 tbsp water

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk the wet ingredients together and add to the dry ingredients. Mix together but let some lumps remain.
Heat a waffle iron and spray lightly with oil. Make waffles per instructions.

These waffles take longer to bake and I give them twice as much time to hang out in the waffle iron than if I were making my usual whole-wheat waffles. One word of advise: don't force the waffle iron open if you feel a resistance: just let them go for a little longer and try again.

(Nutrition estimate per serving (without syrup): Calories 292; Total Fat 11.5 grams; Carbohydrates 14.5 grams; Dietary Fiber 5.6 grams; Protein 8.5 grams)