Thank you very much for your answer Melissa. And why you don’t put the salt and seeds directly into the batter? So then you don’t have to mix it later 
Have you ever tried it? Thx!
Never done it that way. It would be a neat experiment to do. Two bowls of buckwheat fermenting, one with the salt and seeds already in it, the other mixing them in later.
If all the ingredients are in from the get-go, you might do the entire ferment in the baking pan. But I don’t know if parchment can hold up that many hours, and without parchment, there would be some serious stickage…butter the loaf pan?
This is very interesting! I made my first loaf several days ago and it was not a success. I did not notice much fermentation after 20 hours but I baked it anyway. It sagged in the middle and was quite moist even though the temperature when I took it out was over 200°F. I’m going to try again today. But, I’m confused as to the blender part. I have a Vita mix blender but even though I looked at the pictures, I did not know whether it was over blended or under blended. Any tips?
I wonder if your room temp was on the cold side and it needed more heat and time.
I hope your second batch turned out okay. I’m sorry if I’m replying too late to give you tips for it.
The blending is not precise. I happen to use a Cuisinart food processor, but I’m sure a traditional blender or Vitamix would work fine. I believe the idea is to break apart the grouts enough to make some of the starches more accesible to the yeast/bacteria that ferment the batter. The texture I tend to get is still bumpy…maybe like a bumpy soft serve ice cream? It pours a little wetter though.
I hope this helps. Let me know how round two went if you have a chance.
Thanks for responding and I certainly did not expect you to respond so quickly! Here is a picture of my second attempt which was much better than my first. I ended up in blending it until it poured like pancake batter. I do not know if that made any difference. However, this time I used a Pyrex measuring cup to be more precise about the rise (5 to just over 6 cups). I also used a kitchen towel instead of plastic wrap and I baked it to about 205°F. I used 1/3 cup of roasted, un-salted sunflower seeds. I look forward to more experiments using some of the other great ideas in this discussion.
I want to thank you so much for this recipe. It opens up a whole new world in making some really healthy bread!!
Liz
I’m so glad it worked! Looks good
I just had to register on this site to add my support to the many glowing testimonials about this bread. I have shagged around for years trying to perfect buckwheat bread and up till now most of my efforts have been ordinary to say the least. I mostly tried baking with buckwheat flour and using either bi carb or bakers yeast for the rising agent. Besides chia seed,or psyllium husk for binding I often used an egg or two. I tried blending the buckwheat flour with others - but the reality is nothing I have made up till now has been superior, neither in taste, nor texture. This loaf is just the BEST! A heavy dense bread yes, but still nicely aerated.
When I was younger I used to enjoy a similar bread made in NZ by Vogels - I always loved that bread for toast in particular - this buckwheat loaf reminds me of that! Believe me I reckon this recipe is the Holy Grail of home gluten-free baking. Incidently I originally sourced this recipe from another blog - and they just said flax seed - no mention of toasted. Never the less my test loaf turned out beautifully as I have indicated. I also substituted half the flax seeds with chia seed - again a stunning result! Thank you so much for the recipe!
You’re welcome! Glad you joined the forums. The seed options and combinations are indeed numerous and fun to vary.
The photos that people have provided are so helpful as I really want to have success with this bread but… my dough just didn’t ferment properly. First I put it on the counter at room temperature under a tea towel, not much happened after 24 hours. It has been cold here with the deep freeze everywhere, and the room was a fairly normal temp but I thought perhaps it was a bit too cool, I’ll let it ferment as I go to work and see what happens. So getting on to about 36 hours, and I put it the oven with the light on. The top half fermented and the bottom didn’t. It has an off smell and the top doesn’t look right. I’m afraid that I have to pitch it all and try again. Could a few degrees have made a difference? I saw the other post about the bread not fermenting properly, and its hard to figure out what the issue is.
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I’m so sorry it didn’t work out. I think trying again but with the batter in the oven with the light on would be a good plan A. I’ve not had a problem with as low as about 65F but who knows. If you do that, make sure to check on it regularly as it may be done in as little as 10 hrs. Plan B would maybe be to buy different buckwheat. The Breadtopia organic buckwheat and a brand called Anthony’s organic have both worked for me. Good luck!
Thanks Melissa! I think I will order the buckwheat that you recommend and try again. I saw an earlier comment that referred to water maybe being a factor, so maybe I’ll use filtered water as well.
Filtered water is a good idea. Chlorine can inhibit the good beasties as well as the bad.
A happy ending to my earlier post. The problem must have been buckwheat groats that I bought from bins, I tried two places, and both times the fermentation process just didn’t work and I got batter that didn’t rise properly and smelled off. Now after ordering Breadtopia groats, I did everything the same and voila - a beautiful loaf that tastes delicious and looks just like your pics so I know the nice dense consistency is the way it should be. Now that I know how to do this I’ll see if I can find a good source of groats here in Canada that come in sealed packages. I love buckwheat and this bread will become a staple for me. Thanks for the recipe and the advice.
One question, I drained the groats but didn’t rinse them (although I was tempted to do that as they are so slimey at that stage), following your recipe and it worked out fine. Another site that credits you, and has the recipe (it led me here) suggests rinsing the groats before the food processor stage. Is not rinsing necessary for the fermentation to happen properly?
So glad the recipe and Breadtopia buckwheat worked for you!
I suspect the ferment would still work even if you rinsed the groats after soaking. Maybe it would take longer?
The only way to know is to try, and if this other blogger is recommending it, I imagine that is how they do it. Let me know how it goes!
Hi there ,
Just a quick question from me .
How do you know when the fermentation has stopped ?
My batter is looking good so far and I don’t want to destroy it by stir in the salt too early.
Thank you for an awesome recipe , it already has an awesome smell and taste 
Jenny
Only once did I let the batter go too long. It was visibly bubbling, had grown by 50% and started to sink. That wasn’t the best loaf I made – didn’t have a dome.
I suggest stopping it at 30% growth (130% of original size) …from 5 cups of batter to 6.5 cups. If you don’t have a container with measuring marks, then wing it and remember where you stopped for the next time you make it.
I hope it turned out well!
Thank you for your quick response. It is going in to the oven now
I will let you know how it goes .
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Done and I am really happy with the result .Thankyou sooooo much sharing the recipe .
It turned out great . I may have left it a little though , but it was cooked beautifully all the way through .
I actually hollowed it out and baked the shell and tha chunks from the inside . Then I made a vegan spinach dip that I placed inside it .
Yum yum yum
Looking forward to experimenting with flavourings such as berries and another with olives maybe
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Hi Melissa,
Thank you for your wonderful fermented GF buckwheat bread recipe. I will be receiving raw, organic buckwheat groats from Bob’s RM soon and so am preparing for this exciting adventure of BW bread making. Before asking questions, I like to reveal my bread making site and condition for considering to set/amend the process in your recipe instructions: I live in northern California and at this time around it is about 70 ~ 80F night and day and about 40% humidity in the house. So I am setting the soaking time as 5-6 hrs, fermenting time as 12 hrs (mostly at night), and rise time b4 baking as 30 min. The finished batter will be baked in a bread machine for 60 ~ 80 min. Please advise if these settings are inappropriate and kindly provide optimum settings for my conditions. Now I have two questions:
- Should I rinse/clean the groats before soaking them? (I plan to use spring water for soaking and fermenting and will NOT rinse after soaking)
- I will use a Ninja kitchen system (the blender) to make the batter. Should I use “crash” or “blend” mode to process it? and for how long? The Ninja machine is very powerful, so I don’t want to over “break” my groats…
I appreciate your (and anyone’s) help/comments. Thanks
It sounds like you have the process well planned. The only aspect of this recipe that I think you’ll want to hit with some precision is the batter growing by 1.5 cups (from 5ish cups to 6.5ish cups).
Twelve hours at 70-80F sounds about right, but if you can use a container with measuring marks and check on your batter starting as early as 8 hrs, that would be ideal.
I’ve never used a bread machine. If you let everyone know how it goes, I’m sure that would help people who prefer that method of baking.
- I don’t rinse the groats, but I doubt it would be problematic to give a light rinse.
- To repeat my results, you want a gritty frozen-yogurt texture. The photo in the recipe gallery doesn’t show this too well, but check it out if you haven’t already. I think your bread would be fine, just different, if you did a more smooth puree or a more chunky blend. I used a Cuisinart food processor with the metal blade and I don’t know how that compares to the Ninja. I guess go with the less intense setting first and see where that gets you in texture.
I hope this helps. I’m happy to answer other questions. Good luck!