I remember last year surfing the web about milling buckwheat and found a lot of articles about how you have to dehull or buy dehulled buckwheat before milling. As a kid I remember eating buckwheat cakes and it must have been some or all of the hull ground because it had a strong taste, a twang that is absent in this modern flour.
Well, I liked that taste so I suppose i'll get that flavor by grinding the unhulled grain although from what I have read on the internet, it will be too strong. I did use search here and 9 pages came up with the word buckwheat somewhere in the thread. I read a lot of them and did not find the answer I was looking for. Since I do not know the flour recipe from the restaurant that is not close and not open last I checked, it could have been another grain that was mixed in to cut it back a bit?
I can do trial and error and taste the full strength unhulled grind to see if that's it and go from there.
There are some buckwheat eating people here and hopefully some that like the strong flavor of unhulled and i"d like to hear your take on it. Also some tips on grinding would be helpful, thanks for any advice!
Maybe you are thinking of toasted (kasha) or not.
We make kasha often as a side for Polish cooking. We get kasha at the Polish market. It is brown and nutty tasting, like what you see here.
When I buy buckwheat groats bulk at the local grocery or Bob's groats, they are pretty pale and greenish. They do not impart the same toasty flavour. I've been toasting them in the pan before adding water to cook them to try to reproduce the flavour, but as that post illustrates toasting them in the oven may be the way to go.
I don't know for certain that that is the difference in the taste of buckwheat flour from what you recall tasting in buckwheat cakes but it seems likely.
Thanks for the responses. These are/were buckwheat pancakes. The hulled type buckwheat is what you will mostly find for sale with the light color that has had the hull taken off of the grain. I have some of the buckwheat grain that has the dark black hull still on, a triangular shape.
From what I am understanding now, the hull has a strong, somewhat bitter taste and that is why it is taken off. I think when I was younger (I am 58) the buckwheat pancakes that I was used to, may have had some of the hulls left on when ground and gave it a stronger taste. They were a bit bitter although when syrup and butter was added, there was a distinctive strong flavor that to me was tasty.
I am not sure, I will do a small grind when I can, I hope there is nothing in the hull that is unhealthy to eat, I will google and see if I can find something out about that part.
Now Kasha, I have heard of Kasha although I have never tried it. Now I want to try Kasha. I bet it is good !
That reminds me, in my parenting phase, we always had Aunt Jemima Buckwheat Pancake Mix on hand. It was dark-colored like you describe and really tasty! Banana buckwheat with butter and real maple syrup was the family favorite. Discontinued now, apparently...
Not sure I could handle it these days, that's quite a carbo-bomb to start the day off with!