Leavened Blinì

Blinis are small pancakes, typical of Russian and Ukraine cookery.

They are similar to crêpes but smaller, more similar usual pancakes.

I tasted them for the first time in Paris was in the russian restaurant , "À la Ville de Petrograd" in Daru street. This restaurant recently have changed management.

From that time I have tried to reproduce them and at last I had success.

Ingredients: 500g plain flour, 30gr baking yeast, 1 Tsp sugar, 1 egg, 50g butter, 250g yoghurt.

Dissolve the yeast in a glass of lukewarm water and add it to the flour, mixing in a bowl. Combine with it yogurt and sugar, melted butter and finally the egg .

Put the bowl in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap and let stand for about 12 hours. This to me is the best way to get a slow and perfect rise of the dough.

Of course, if you hurry , you can also leave the dough for about 2 hours out of the fridge in a warm place. The mixture have to be very soft, like a thick batter.

There are special small pans of heavy iron to cook blinis, but of course you can use any pan that takes heat well, like a pancakes frying, suitably dosing the amount of batter for each pancake.

Heat very well the pan for at least 5 minutes then, with a brush or swab, lightly grease it and pour a ladle of batter so that it forms a thin well-rounded layer.

The first blini is never well done or because it is too fat or too thin or too cooked, but it permit you to understand the amount of batter and the level of heat for the next blini.

Blinis should be clear and soft but always smooth and flat leavened in the pan.

from "Babette's feast"

I know that sometimes they are prepared in the oven, but I honestly prefer the method on the fire, because, after starting, the pan needs to be greased only rarely, every 5 or 6 blinis.

As you prepare them, pile blinis in aluminum foil on a dish and when you have more than twenty, close the foil and put this package in a warm oven.

This method will keep them very warm but not dried and ready for the table.

Make always a lot of blinis because they're good also the next day, kept in the fridge, wrapped in aluminum and then heated in the oven, still wrapped in aluminium.