Recipe: Ployes (Buckwheat Pancakes)

Ployes (Buckwheat Pancakes) with butter.

Ployes (rhymes with “boys”) Buckwheat Pancakes are a specialty of the Acadian region of Maine and eastern Quebec. I was lucky enough to bring back a mix made with fresh buckwheat flour from my Maine Kneading Conference, but you can make them from scratch with this official recipe from the University of Maine. There’s no eggs or dairy so the flavor primarily comes from the buckwheat; make sure you have a good product such as Bob’s Red Mill. You can eat them with butter and maple syrup and they will taste just as good as regular pancakes, but Acadians also eat them with cretons (a pate-like spread made with pork and warm spice flavors) or on their own as a portable snack. Makes 10 six-inch ployes.

Ingredients:
1 c buckwheat flour
1/3 c white flour
1 ½ t baking powder
½ t salt
1 c cold water
½ c hot water

Method: combine dry ingredients, add cold water and mix. Add hot water and mix some more until the batter is uniform without lumps. It should be somewhere between the consistency of pancake batter and crepe batter but not as liquid as water.

With butter and maple syrup… mmm.

Heat a nonstick skillet* over medium high heat (go for 400 degrees if you have a laser thermometer). Pour in a scoop of batter (we used a quarter cup measuring cup) and tilt the skillet so the pancake expands in the pan to 6-inch diameter. If the batter is thin enough, little “eyes” will appear all over the surface of the ploy at this point; if the pancake is too thick and eyes do not form, gobble up this test ploy and add water and stir before making the next one. DO NOT FLIP THE PLOY; it is done when the surface turns dull and the edges start to curl. Remove the finished pancake with a spatula and repeat, stirring the batter in between each batch.

It only takes about 10-15 minutes to make all your ployes, so you can spread them out on a countertop or keep warm in a low oven if you prefer. Serve with butter and syrup or maybe some jam or honey.

*It’s traditional to cook ployes in a cast iron skillet, but we found our Misen nonstick skillet made it much easier to tilt and expand the ployes with its lighter weight. If you don’t use a nonstick skillet you might need to add a dab of butter or bacon grease under your batter.