Blini with Soured Cream
Small yeasted buckwheat pancakes, thicker and more savoury than a crêpe, served warm with soured cream and whatever you can afford on top. Traditionally eaten by the dozen during Maslenitsa.
Photograph credit: Blini Tanya by The original uploader was Hugo.arg at Lithuanian Wikipedia. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Photograph credit: Slicing Pancakes with Fork 374819 by Shared Food · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Making Blini with Soured Cream
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Warm the milk to blood temperature and whisk in the yeast and sugar. Leave 10 minutes until frothy.
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Whisk in both flours and the salt until smooth, then cover and prove in a warm place for 90 minutes until risen and bubbling.
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Whisk in the egg yolks and melted butter.
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Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and fold them gently into the batter in two additions.
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Rest the batter 20 minutes — do not stir it again after this point.
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Heat a heavy frying pan or blini pan over medium heat and brush with butter.
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Drop tablespoons of batter to make 7 cm rounds, spaced apart.
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Cook 90 seconds until bubbles rise and burst across the surface and the edges look set.
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Flip and cook 60 seconds more until golden. Keep warm under a cloth while you cook the rest.
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Serve warm, topped with soured cream, smoked salmon (optional), roe, dill and a squeeze of lemon.
Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Ingredient substitutions.
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Notes for Getting It Right
- Fold the whites in last and treat the batter gently from then on. That air is your rise.
- Serve them warm, not hot from the pan and not cold. Under a cloth is the traditional holding method.
- For a milder pancake, shift the ratio towards plain flour; for a more assertive one, go the other way.
What to Serve with Blini with Soured Cream
- Ice-cold vodka
- Soured cream and dill, always
- Smoked fish or, on a good day, caviar
Keeping and Reheating
Best fresh. Keeps 2 days refrigerated and freezes 2 months, interleaved; reheat in a dry pan for 30 seconds a side.
Questions About Blini with Soured Cream
How long does Blini with Soured Cream take to make?
15 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking, plus 1 hour 50 minutes of proving, so allow 2 hours 25 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 6.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: an ingredient listed without an amount is not counted, so the figures run low; garnishes, greasing and other items with no amount are not counted; part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.
Vegetarian when served without the smoked salmon or gravlax and salmon roe or caviar.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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