Belgian buckwheat pancakes

These are yeast pancakes. Ingredients are buckwheat flour (1.25 cups), regular flour (1.25 cups), yeast (0.5 tbsp), sugar (2 tbsp), a pinch of salt, two eggs (at room temp), and two cups of beer (you could use milk, but come on!) and a couple of apples that will be added at cooking time.

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ones and mix to a smooth batter. The beer's gonna foam so use a big bowl. The nice thing about this recipe is that two bottles of beer is more than two cups (you know what to do with the extra).

Pour your batter into something that can pour. A mega measuring cup, a blender pitcher (you could do the whole thing in a blender if you like), or whatever. Let it sit at room temperature for an hour (remember -- yeast!)

Warm your pans. I like these 6" skillets because they make nice pancake shapes. You could do this in a regular pan too. This recipe makes about eight 6" pancakes.

After an hour your batter should be all bubbly (if the beer and eggs were at room temp).

Slice the apples about half an inch thick. Scoop the cores out. You could use one of those fancy corers, or a half teaspoon like me.

Pop some butter in the pan. (Why oh why did I forget that I had some bacon fat in the fridge?! It would be nice here too!) Do one pan at a time, or the butter will burn before you get to the last one. Add your apple slice, then pour your batter around the apple. Taking a photo at this point isn't the greatest idea -- a better thing to do is hold the apple in place with a knife or fork so it doesn't slide over to the side when the batter hits it.

Let them sit for a few minutes until they are all bubbly and starting to dry at the sides (just like regular pancakes). Then flip 'em! The fish spatula does a good job at this. Just make sure you get the flipper all the way under the apple or it will fall out (causing you to say a bad word, if you are inclined to that weakness). Let them sit for another minute or two. (Look at that freakin' apple! MMMM!!!)
 

Ready to roll! I used Kriek (cherry beer) in the batter and you can taste it in the finished pancake, but not so much when drowned in syrup (or it may be that I eat pretty fast and don't chew much). Pear syrup is the authentic topping here, but that's probably just because they can't get maple syrup over there.
 

The fleet all cleaned up and ready for the next mission!

Inspiration: The Food and Cooking of Belgium by Suzanne Vandyck.