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Buckwheat drop scones

Olia Hercules shares a traditional recipe for a Ukrainian version of pikelets, from her wonderful new book 'Summer Kitchens'
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I have come across a myriad of old Ukrainian recipes that use a natural sourdough leaven called opara to make pancakes, and buckwheat flour also featured in many of them. Zinoviya Klynovetska, one of Ukraine’s pioneering food writers, has a recipe for what she calls lyapuny, or buckwheat flour pancakes, in her seminal 1913 Dishes and Drinks of Ukraine. These drop scones were partly inspired by that recipe and partly by British pikelets, cousins of the crumpet. If you want to make them the traditional way, you’ll have to mix the batter the day before, as the sourdough needs to ferment overnight.

Find more recipes from 'Summer Kitchens' by Olia Hercules.

A recipe from Summer Kitchens: Recipes and Reminiscences from Every Corner of Ukraine by Olia Hercules (Bloomsbury).