How to Make Buckwheat Flour

Buckwheat flour is a baking material that is most commonly used to produce bakery products without gluten. In virtually any type of recipe, buckwheat flour can replace regular flour, whether in pancakes, muffins, cakes or other bakery goods. Buckwheat is also very popular because it is cheap and grows well in poor soil, making it a logical choice for many Third World countries and villages. Buckwheat flour is often blended with regular flour to get the benefits of both.

Things You'll Need

• Buckwheat
• Dry storage
• Electric miller
• Storage unit
• Box fan

Instructions

How to Make Buckwheat Flour

1. After harvesting buckwheat, keep the plants in a dry storage area where there's no threat of mold or dampness. Drying can be sped up with heaters in the room, or left to be done naturally. The buckwheat must be completely dried before any other step is taken.

2. Once the buckwheat is completely dry, remove the outer husks of every plant, leaving the fruit behind. The fruit looks like a small beechnut and is easy to tell apart from the rest of the plant. A classic way to harvest is as with traditional wheat, by beating the husks against the inside of a dry barrel.

3. Winnow the buckwheat as necessary. This is the process of removing weeds and chaff from the buckwheat fruit. The easiest way is to set up a box fan and then pour buckwheat from one container to another in front of the fan. The breeze will blow away the chaff, but the buckwheat will be too heavy to move and will go from one container to the other.

4. Use an electric miller to grind the buckwheat into flour. If you don't have a miller, you can use two heavy stones to do this by hand, but it is very time consuming and tedious work. An electric miller makes the milling buckwheat flour far more practical. The flour should be light brown, sprinkled with dark specks.

5. Bag the buckwheat flour or use it as you see it for baking. Repeat as necessary with dry buckwheat to make more flour.

Tips & Warnings

• Use an electric miller. Doing this by hand could mean 10-hour days to get enough for one meal.

• Don't use wet buckwheat. This plant must be dried before being ground into a safe and healthy flour.

References

• What Is Buckwheat Flour?
• About Buckwheat
• Making Buckwheat

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish