- 150ml milk
- 70g buckwheat flour
- 70g strong white flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
- 2 eggs
- 4g dried yeast
- 100g soured cream
- 25g butter, for frying
1 Start making the batter
Heat the milk in a small pan until it’s just below the boil. While it’s heating, in a large bowl whisk the two flours (buckwheat gives blinis their characteristic nutty flavour, while the white flour keeps them nice and light) with the salt and caraway seeds, if using. Separate the eggs, and put the yolks in a small bowl and the whites in a large one.
2 Leave the hot milk to cool
As soon as the milk begins to bubble, turn off the heat and leave it to cool down to blood temperature. This scalding helps to denature the whey proteins in the milk, which will ultimately make your blini fluffier, but if the milk is still too hot when you add the yeast, it will die, and render your efforts pointless.
3 Add the yeast and egg yolks
Stir the yeast into the warm milk, then whisk in the egg yolks and soured cream, mixing vigorously until they’re well combined. Pour the milk mixture into the flour bowl, stirring as you do so, until you have a fairly smooth paste. Be careful not to overwork it once it’s mixed, though, or your blinis will be tough.
4 Leave the batter to prove
Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave in a fairly warm, or at least not draughty, place for an hour or so, or until it looks spongy (it won’t rise dramatically, but the batter should have grown slightly in the bowl, and there ought to be a few bubbles visible on the top.
5 Add the egg whites and prove again
Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, then gently fold them into the batter mixture using a large metal spoon or a rubber spatula, being mindful to keep as much air in the mix as possible. Once they’ve been well combined, cover the bowl again and leave for another two hours.
6 Cook the blinis
Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Once it’s hot, drop teaspoonfuls of batter in batches into the pan, and cook them until bubbles rise to the surface and golden brown underneath. Carefully flip over and cook for another minute or so, until golden brown on both sides. Repeat with the remaining batter.
7 Eat warm
Blinis are best eaten warm from the pan, otherwise they can go rather stodgy, so either serve them in batches as you make them, or store them in a warm oven, wrapped in a tea towel to keep them soft, until you’ve used up all the batter. They can also be frozen once cooked: defrost and microwave briefly to reheat.
8 Serving suggestions
The simplest way to serve blinis is topped with a dollop of soured cream and a few fish eggs or a curl of smoked fish or cooked meat, and perhaps a pinch of chopped chives or some freshly ground black pepper. Smoked mackerel, kipper or salmon paté, or chunks of pickled herring are even simpler options.