This Breton Galette recipe combines the gluten-free wonders of naturally soured buckwheat crepes with the traditional toppings of Brittany for a unique and beautiful breakfast common in France. Have you ever tried a Breton Galette? A large, thin buckwheat crepe is topped with a sunny side up egg from pastured hens (an egg which cooks on the crepe while it, too, cooks), melted swiss cheese, real ham from foraged hogs, and thinly sliced apples. Some even use it as a vehicle for green vegetables like spinach, too. Super fast and surprisingly scrumptious, you’ll definitely want to try this Breton Galette recipe.
But what about that buckwheat? Isn’t it a grain? Isn’t it hard to digest? Buckwheat, contrary to its name, is not a cereal grain like wheat. It’s much more like a seed than a typical grain and falls into the “pseudo-grain” category. And although buckwheat contains plenty of phytic acid, it also contains large amounts of phytase (the enzyme that breaks down phytic acid). So, if you properly prepare this pseudo-grain, you can have an easily digested, gluten-free pancake for breakfast. Or you can make this Breton Galette recipe!
Breton Galette Recipe
The Players
For the crepe:
- 1 cup of buckwheat groats (see resources)
- 1 cup of unsweetened yogurt (see resources)
- 1 egg from pastured hens
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla
- cinnamon and salt to taste
- water to thin the batter
- fat of choice — I prefer coconut oil, ghee, or butter. (see resources)
For the toppings:
(for each crepe prepared, use the following)
- 1 egg from pastured hens
- 1 to 2 oz. of grated swiss cheese
- 2 slices of real ham from foraged hogs
- 2-3 thin slices of apple
The How-To
1. First begin by souring your buckwheat. In a blender, combine buckwheat groats and yogurt and blend well. Soak at room temperature for 8-24 hours, depending on how sour you like your sourdough.
2. Add one egg, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and water and blend on high until the batter is the runny consistency you need for crepes. While the blender is running, remove lid and gently add baking soda into the vortex. This helps ensure it gets evenly distributed. Run the blender for another 30 seconds to a minute.
3. Meanwhile, heat a large 10-12 inch skillet over medium heat and melt your fat of choice in it. Ladle 1/3 cup of batter into your skillet and spread thin, coating the bottom.
4. Crack an egg open into the center. Use a spatula to spread the white around without breaking the yolk. Sprinkle grated swiss cheese over the entire galette. Put slices of ham and the sliced apples around the yolk. Allow the galette to set and the ham and apples to heat through.
5. When the underside of the galette is set and golden-brown, turn the four “corners” of it inward to create a square. Slide the complete galette off the skillet and serve immediately.
6. Repeat until you’ve made as many Breton Galettes as you desire. In Brittany, variations include: substituting berries for the apples, filling with spinach or other diced greens, using scrambled eggs instead of sunny-side up ones, you get the idea. Use this Breton Galette recipe as a base for all kinds of yumminess!
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Brilliant! This is similar to the GF Blender Pancakes that use uncooked oats and brown rice, blended with yogurt and soaked overnight. Add egg, oil, salt and baking soda in morning. yum.
This looks awesome! I don’t have any buckwheat, so I’m going to try with coconut flour, but I love the idea!
I’ve done it with coconut flour crepes. It works! The sourdough buckwheat is more traditional, though. But for those on GAPS or trying to go low-carb, I’d definitely recommend using the coconut flour crepes. So delish!
I have a question…I am allergic to pork. Not deathly allergic, I just break out in hives. I’ve never tried “natural” pork, though (raised like it should be) – do you think that would make a difference? How would I go about finding a source for naturally raised pork?
I suppose that I should mention that I even break out in hives if I kiss my husband after he’s eaten anything with pork…so it may be an incurable allergy, but I figured I’d ask 🙂
Hi Hayley,
I would recommend you stay away from pork in general. I’m not allergic, but I still don’t eat it because pigs are the scavengers of the farm. They eat waste and have a different type of digestive system, meaning their meat tends to be ‘dirty’ as well.
But to find naturally, humanely raised meat like beef and chicken, try looking up your area on eatwild.com to find farmers and ranchers near you 🙂
Aside from the subject of allergies, pigs have been and are still eaten by very healthy traditional communities. I don’t think that their scavenging habits make them an unfit part of a healthy diet. According to the Celts, boar meat was considered holy and eating it brought you closer to God(s).
This is nonsense! I have just killed a pig with a rusty axe! It died instantly! I then gorged on its sweet flesh! I am so pleased!
The problem with this statement is that a person who says this has never raised chickens…they eat literally anything and are certainly incredible scavengers. Pigs are no “dirtier” than any other farm animal when it comes to eating habits except perhaps a horse and cows, that only eat grass. Their digestive system is very similar to our own.
Yum! I love the idea of the egg inside the crepe all open-faced and sunny-side up. Looks delicious!
This looks so amazing! I’ve never used buckwheat before but am curious to try.
So (let me display my ignorance here) groats mean that it’s hulled? So there’s a difference between groats and seeds?
This recipe is delicious, easy and versatile. It will become a regular in my menu rotation. We have enjoyed it with smoked cheddar and bacon. Thank you for sharing!
I wish there was a print button … having to copy and paste into Word to print the recipe is a pain 🙁
Hi Pat,
I’m sorry about that! I used to have such a button, but then after a WordPress upgrade, the plugin I was using to manage the button stopped working. I’ve looked for alternatives that didn’t break the site in some way, but haven’t found any yet. I haven’t looked in the last 6 months or so, though. So, I’ll put that on my list of things to do soon!
It’s been done! Under the Sharing Is Rebellious section, “Print Friendly” is the first option.
This looks delish!! I won’t be using the pork either as we try to eat kosher, but I think there’s a turkey bacon out there that doesn’t use nitrates/nitrates..I think I will add diced tomatoes or sun-dried tomatoes to mine..YUM!
Thanks for the recipe!
That looks delicious – my wife is trying to eat more gluten free so this comes at a good time. I’ll have to look for some buckwheat, I haven’t tried to use buckwheat but I had just over-heard when we were at the store looking for gluten free items that it didn’t have gluten even though it sounds like it is wheat. Misleading name. 🙂
I just left Brittany 4 days ago. My husband and I were on a GR trail for several days. These galettes are everywhere. I never really saw apple as an ingredient, but gizzards were very popular. So good!
buckwheat pancakes are the best – and i love the sound of this method for making crepes! thanks 🙂
Why wait until breakfast? This looks great for dinner tonight!
Thanks, Carol
Now I’m going to have to buy some groats. This looks amazing. I want to make it with Gruyere. Yum!
Believe it or not, the breakfast of choice for my 10 and 4 yr olds is currently green peas with cultured butter and a bit of celtic sea salt: )
Always porridge. Made with steel cut oats soaked in raw milk o/night, then cooked, and topped with flaxseed and whatever fruit is in the house. Lots of cinnamon. I’m a nursing mama and oats are brilliant for milk supply!
Sara that sounds sooo yummy!!! Barley is also good for milk supply. I cant do oats. I have gluten issues and oats make my joints ache and give me super heartburn. I love making rice pudding with raw milk.
When the raw milk starts to sour a bit I toss it into a pot with left over brown rice. Just needs a touch of sweetness and cinnamon, oh and tons of melted butter. Ohhhh soooo goood!!!!
usually steel cut oats or buckwheat pancakes (soured of course) but these look wonderful! We’ll try these for sure – thanks for the recipe!
Oh yes Nicky I too love rice pudding!! I add a couple of eggs at the end and stir through to make it extra decadent. Yum!!!!
What an awesome looking recipe! Sure looks tastier than the kasha I made a couple of months ago in an effort to try out buckwheat. I must try this! And BTW, @ Nicky, you can get gluten free oats. It’s only the fact that they’re processed in the same facilities with wheat that render them glutinous. However, your reaction might also be due to preparation. Oats have to be soaked overnight with a little yogurt or whey to be very digestible. After soaking overnight, though, they cook Soooo much faster. And they are BRILLIANT for milk supply!
Chris Kesser has a recipe for similar pancakes on his site, but his instructions include a preliminary soaking of the whole groats before blending them to sour. I’ve tried this once and the groats become very mucilaginous, which I rinsed off very carefully. One commentator on Chris’ recipe page mentioned that these are saponins and therefor should be rinsed off so as not to irritate the gut (they’re toxic). When you start out blending the raw groats as in the recipe above, the saponins are left behind. I don’t think buckwheat has as much saponins as does quinoa, but people have been known to get sick from buckwheat. I also hear some people complain about a bitter taste with buckwheat (possibly due to saponins, which are bitter).
Made these for breakfast. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but mine stuck to the pan horribly and the egg was still raw when the crepe was done. I flipped what I could of it. It didn’t look pretty when I was done but the taste was still delicious. Definitely going to keep working at it!
This is one of my kids favorite breakfasts. I put a mound of spinach on, then the egg, then diced Canadian bacon, and cheese. I made a double batch of batter a few days ago and when I ran out of eggs I added spinach to the batter in my blender and made up a bunch of extra crepes that my kids ate later with some almond butter and raw honey.
Yes, in France!
Been on the search for decent buckwheat recipes – thank you, looks great!