Buckwheat Flour Is The Pantry Ingredient To Elevate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are one of the most iconic desserts out there — with a versatile texture (you can make them chewy or crunchy or somewhere in between) and gooey, chocolatey goodness, there's a whole lot to love about them. But sometimes we want to switch up a familiar recipe and try something new. For chocolate chip cookies, we recommend turning to buckwheat flour to elevate your chocolate chip cookies.

Buckwheat flour comes from, well, buckwheat, which is grain-like seeds from a plant; it's known as a "pseudo-grain" or "pseudocereal" because it's actually completely gluten-free (despite what the name would suggest, as gluten is naturally found in wheat). As for how it tastes when cooked or baked, buckwheat produces a nutty and earthy flavor, with a bit of bitterness. It also adds a moist and tender texture. In other words, buckwheat is the nutty-tasting flour ideal for gluten-free recipes.

But besides the benefits of being gluten-free, buckwheat flour will make for a unique flavor when incorporated into chocolate chip cookies. Because buckwheat flour has a strong flavor, it needs to be paired up with other strong flavors — such as chocolate. In fact, it will even enhance the flavor of the chocolate, making your chocolate chip cookies taste perhaps even more chocolatey than a traditional recipe. Sounds pretty good, right?

Plus, buckwheat doesn't have to stick to just cookies — there are plenty of other recipes to incorporate the pseudocereal into.

There are actually a plethora of dishes that can be transformed by using buckwheat flour. Just looking at Tasting Table's catalog, we have a recipe for a chocolate buckwheat tart and buckwheat banana bread (the latter of which is vegan as well as gluten-free). If you opt to make them both, you get to start your day off with a slice of banana bread for breakfast, then end the day with a piece of tart for dessert.

Another great buckwheat breakfast option? Buckwheat pancakes will bring that nuttiness to a hearty pancake stack. Or, if you're more of a waffle person, buckwheat flour can be used to make those just as easily. Just about any baked good — muffins, scones, and so on — can include buckwheat flour instead of all-purpose flour as long as the recipe has been adjusted. Or, for another dessert option, how about brownies made with buckwheat? Just like with the cookies, the buckwheat will make those brownies taste even more chocolatey, as well as bring in that nutty flavor without having to incorporate actual nuts.

Additionally, as long as you don't need a gluten-free dish, you can always use a mixture of all-purpose flour and buckwheat flour. If you replace, say, a quarter of the all-purpose flour called for with buckwheat flour, then you'll reduce the sweetness and bring in nutty undertones while keeping a fluffy texture (buckwheat doesn't result in fluffiness because of its lack of gluten).