Buckwheat flour

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is not a cereal: rather than a grass like wheat or barley, it belongs to the knotweed family, together with rhubarb and sorrel. It is processed much like grain, which is why regulations class it as a pseudocereal. Before milling it may be steamed, kiln-dried or roasted, and it is ground both hulled and unhulled; in Austria buckwheat flour is also called Heidenmehl.

The flour contains no gluten, so it suits gluten-free cooking, but it cannot bind a dough by itself and is rarely used alone. For a well-risen bread, buckwheat and similar flours are blended with 50–65 % wheat flour. In Valtellina it goes into pizzoccheri, made from a mix of wheat and buckwheat flour, and into polenta taragna, where buckwheat is mixed with cornmeal.

Buckwheat (blé noir) has been grown in Brittany since the fourteenth century and copes well with poor soils. Farine de blé noir de Bretagne is a protected geographical indication (PGI) for historic Brittany; the flour has a pronounced aroma and taste and is used for galettes and crêpes.