Buckwheat [Experimental] Tiramisu

Buckwheat is a pseudo-cereal, not related to wheat and, according to various sources, it has a low to medium glycemic index. When consumed, it may help with blood glucose level control. As I keep saying, don’t believe me, do your own research. Just a couple of the many sources I checked: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/buckwheat or https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325042.php

I went through the data I found on http://www.glycemicindex.com. For a lay-person, the information is overwhelming and confusing. One has to take into account carbohydrate quantity, glycemic index and glycemic load…

Considering that on the internet one can find information just about anything and the exact opposite of it as well, the best way to proceed with incorporating new food items into one’s diet – after doing the research – is to check your glucose level after two hours of having eaten the food in question and then repeat this experiment a few more times to be sure that the results are consistent and hopefully within recommended values.

Buckwheat comes in different forms for different applications. In this current experiment I have used the dark buckwheat flour (photos above) to create a sponge cake batter, which then I used to bake cup-cakes for tiramisu. The recipe is based on the Hungarian sponge cake recipe (proportions of the ingredients are 1 egg to 1 spoon of [birch] sugar to 1 [slightly heaped] tablespoon of flour), which in this case I modified to suit my available ingredients. Other then that, I followed the same procedure as described in my previous post ALMOND FLOUR.

Ingredients for batter (24 cup-cakes in jumbo size pans)

8 whole eggs
6 egg-whites (because I had them, and thought I may as well use them)
200 g xylitol (birch sugar)
10 slightly heaped tablespoons of dark buckwheat flour

With these ingredients, the cup-cake developed a pleasant springy texture but didn’t grow as high as I expected. In retrospect, it might be a good idea to stick to the original sponge cake proportions of 1:1:1.

The icing contains mascarpone, birch sugar (to taste) and cream. I took my inspiration from several websites describing the icing for tiramisu. Instead of following a precise recipe, I settle on an amount of mascarpone that I think is suitable for the number of cup-cakes I have, add the birch-sugar, then whip the mixture with a hand-mixer while gradually adding the cream. The amount of cream depends on how much the mascarpone can take up, and that is a “feel” developed after five-six experiments.

During my experiments, I found that the brand of mascarpone is very important, both in terms of taste and texture. My two favorite brands (available on regular basis) are Granarolo and Galbani (ingredients: Milk cream, milk, citric acid, no sugar). Over the past few months I tested other brands as well. For example, EMMA had a bit of sour taste (may have been the batch) and it has added sugar (which beats the purpose in my case). Polenghi has no sugar listed among the ingredients, but the taste reminded me of powdered milk and soap. TreStelle has a grainy texture compared to the smoothness of other brands, so adding the cream while whipping doesn’t work quite so well.

Back to buckwheat! I found three varieties of buckwheat flour so far: the dark buckwheat flour (used for the above cupcakes) the green buckwheat flour (which I used for pancakes on the griddle) and the “whole grain” variety (yet to get tested). See below pictures for the latter two: