Boukète

A Boukète is a buckwheat pancake made in the Liege area of Belgium.

It is made with raisins and / or thin apple slices, and served warm with sugar or brown sugar. It became traditional to serve Boukètes on Christmas Eve with a glass of warmed wine.

Boukètes are made from wheat flour, buckwheat flour, milk, water, yeast, salt. Some recipes add egg.

The raisins are soaked first in water or rum. Some recipes call for you to soak the apple slices in apple cider first.

You melt butter in the pan, pour a dipper of batter in, sprinkle some raisins on it or place an apple slice or two on it, and let cook, turning.

In the Herve area, it is served spread with a thick syrup made from apples and pears.

Language Notes

"Boukète" means buckwheat. "Boukète" is somewhat similar to "bockouite", used by Acadians in the Upper St. John Valley of Maine. The real French word for buckwheat is "sarrasin."

The full name of this pancake is "Boukète à rètchon." "Rètchon" means to spit, and refers to spitting on the pan to see if it is hot enough. It modern times, the practice is to not use the full name because it tended to put people off eating them.

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