Buckwheat pancakes, leaning tower of

My love of mini pancakes is no secret. I make them at least two or three times a week, and I've been happy with my whole wheat recipe for years.

Then one day, I saw a recipe for buckwheat pancakes online and something stirred in the back of my mind. On the same day, I was flipping through The Art of Simple Food and A Homemade Life, and found buckwheat crepe/pancake recipes. I took these as a sign and went immediately to the market to get some buckwheat flour.

And oh, they are delicious! I am officially a convert. I used Molly's recipe from A Homemade Life, and they were nutty and hearty, yet soft and pillowy as well.

I craved them again a couple of days later, but was almost out of buttermilk so used a combination of cream, milk and a scant 1/4 cup of buttermilk. I also added a touch more sugar and wow, they were spectacular.

I tweaked with the recipe some more, and came up with my own version entirely. It's almost dessert-like but with an earthy heft. Kumi gobbles them up, though she's no match for my speed.

Buckwheat Pancakes

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, sugar and salt
2. In a small bowl, mix milk, buttermilk and cream
3. Whisk egg into butter and add egg-butter mixture to the milk-buttermilk-cream mixture.
4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Do not overmix
5. Heat a skillet with a little butter over medium heat and spoon in about a tablespoon-worth of batter. My skillet holds three 2-inch pancakes per batch.
6. Cook the first side for about 2-3 minutes until the top of the pancakes start to bubble. Flip and cook the other side for approximately a minute. The batter will look grainy with black flecks that resemble vanilla beans, but the cooked pancakes will turn out a gorgeous golden hue.

Yields about 25 scrumptious mini-pancakes (2-inch diameter)