Blinis
I am not sure how it is in your part of the world but at the moment here it is terrible weather. It seems that the short burst of spring kind of disappeared for a while. Too bad as I was so looking forward to have a long weekend during Easter with lots of sunshine and some spare time to work in the garden. It’s been a while that I had the luxury of three whole days of nothing planned, so better weather would have been nice. O well, on the plus side; it will be perfect for long sleep-inn’s in the morning, leisurely breakfast and some reading or watching movies. Ooo, that doesn’t sound too bad either, now does it. Gardening centers are traditionally completely packed for easter, which is weird if you think about it, but that seems to be the national day in which the entire nation decides to start working on the garden again! If the sun is shining I guess I would be no different. I do not like to work in the garden when it is raining though, so all the weeds will have to wait a little bit before being removed. I am sure they will not mind!
So enough about the weather now! For lunch today I finally, finally made the blinis that were on the menu for a while now. Just hadn’t gotten around to it or when I wanted to I didn’t feel like making them. But now I have. I did make blinis before as you can read here but that recipe was slightly different. I am not sure if this was a very traditional recipe either and I am sure Olga will tell me differently, but it was funny that, as soon as we decided that blinis would be the next thing to make, I kept getting new foodmagazines which featured blinis! And all look sort of the same. Olga told me that they are traditionally more like crepes in appearance and not at all like the thick little pancakes we see everywhere that are called blinis.Maybe they are different across varies part of Russia. I really do not know. But whatever they are called or whatever their origin; they are – for sure – very versatile. Because the taste is so neutral, you can combine them with both savoury things, as in the salmon and sourcream above or sweet as with the raspberry and honey below.
Blinis with raspberry and icing sugar
I loved them with the salmon and it is a great lunch. Quick too, if you do not count the rising time of the batter, but it literally takes seconds to make them. I whipped some of the sourcream with dill, pepper and salt and voila, nice little treat. In addition to that I also made a couple with raspberries, which to be honest is my personal favorite. I just love raspberries and for some reason, pancakes, to me are all about sweet stuff. I’ve never really liked the “pizza” pancakes you can get at any pancake house around here these days. Sure I like pancakes with bacon and cheese, but in general pancakes need to be sweet. But that is just my twisted mind speaking. And technically these are not really pancakes ofcourse.
But… they are part of the “pancakes-around-the-world” theme that Nurit from FamilyFriendlyFood and Trissa from Trissalicious and I have going on at the moment. Sofar we have managed to make the Dutch treat “poffertjes“, the Danish Aebleskiver and now the Russian Blinis.
Normally we all post together for a new recipes but due to a small misunderstanding our posts will be all over the place when it comes to the blinis. You can Trissa’s gorgeous chocolate blinis here and I will soon let you know where you can find Nurit’s too!
The recipe for these blinis is pretty simple:
INGREDIENTS
150 gr all purpose flour
2 eggs
150 ml lukewarm milk
3,5 gr of dry yeast
pinch of salt
For the sourcream; combine sourcream with some chopped dill and add salt and pepper to taste
Add flour, yeast, milk and the eggs together in a bowl and mix with a handmixer until smooth. Leave to rest and rise for about an hour at normal roomtemperature. To make the blinis heat a non-stick frying pan on medium heat and drop a tablespoon of batter in a pan. You can bake about four in one go as they are small.
This recipe makes 20 blinis.
Obviously for the topping you can use whatever takes your fancy. I kept it more traditional but check out Trissa’s for a more fancy approach!
In addition to making them with salmon and making them also with raspberries I also made a few with apple and gorgonzola and dressed these with maple syrup. Oooo golden goodness… 
So really you can combine these with just about anything that takes your fancy. You can eat them warm or you can eat them cold. Reheating them in the microwave literally takes seconds if you want them warm after all. They would also make quite a good starter or dessert!
Blinis with apple, gorgonzola and maple syrup
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
You know this is truly one of my favourite dishes?? I love salmon and I love blinis, the combination of both is pure heaven…
I love salmon but had never tried blinis before, looks like pancake. Would like to try this simple recipe. Thanks!
Salmon and blinis, a classic that I never get tired of! Beautiful!
ooh these look like the perfect appetizers for a easter menu or buffet. i love salmon and the variations you have presented with the belinis are awesome!
These blinis look like crumpets we make in Czech Republic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumpet. I remember that my mum used to have a special pan with 4 “holes” for them. I have to try to make your blinis to find out if the taste is same!
I really like the savoury version with salmon.
Hmm I would have them for breakfast! Hehe. I am sorry to hear about the weather, here we are finally having some really nice weather and I am really really enjoying it. I hope winter is gone for good!
my mouth is watering…
They look so good with the salmon! All three varieties look delicious, actually, but I’ve been craving salmon lately.
It is gorgeous here, fingers crossed
I could sit her eall day staring at your pictures.
Simone! Ever since I mistakenly posted mine at the wrong time I have been anxiously waiting for your post! Now that it’s here I can tell it was worth the wait! I didn’t realize blinis has yeast in them! So interesting and they look amazing. Hope the weather improves!
These look great! I have some buckwheat flour in the cupboard and I have been meaning to make blinis for a while now. I will use your recipe, it looks so easy!
Oh, I love salmon and the blinis only makes it better! It looks delicious! Great photos!
Looks delicious! I love how can you can make them sweet or savoury!
Simone, like;em all but if I were at a party I’d probably hang around the smoke salmon table!
I made smoked salmon blinis a few years ago at a potluck. They were soooo good! I love your sweet version too.
Beautiful outstanding, made me hungry and I just ate. I’ll be thinking about blinis all week now. Especially the salmon. But usually, I agree with you that pancakes should be sweet. Stunning post, made my mouth water.
who cares if they are authentic or not??? they look amazing. all you are missing is some black caviar
btw how awesome that our pancakes with raspberries look almost the same!?
thanks for the bday wishes: it was a good one!
I am so excited seeing your variations of this blinis. Savory or sweet, you have managed to make them all look great and delicious.
The shots are appertizing as usual. Thumbs up, especially the first photo, my favorite….
Sawadee from Bangkok,
Kris
Delicious and SOOO beautiful. Your pictures are fantastic as usual
Happy Easter!!
Your blinis look so good & tasty!! I wish you & your family a Happy Easter!
One of my best friends is Russian and his mom makes blinis all the time. Yours and your versions of how to incorporate them into dishes are DIVINE!
These look amazing! I love smoked salmon.
Also, how is it that I’ve never come across your site before? It’s amazing! I’m going to dig through your archives for awhile
Aw, better luck on the weather soon. We had our first really nice weekend and it feels like coming back to life after winter. I have to say, though, these blinis would be quite the consolation prize – they look great.
I have only had blinis once in my life can you believe?? These look delicious and elegant!
Those look absolutely delicious. I love smoked salmon on anything. In fact I just posted a similar thing, but instead of blinis, oat cakes. I think smoked salmon really is a spring kind of food. Yours dishes look wonderful! Sorry you didn’t get to work in your garden, but I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
At first I though it’s pancake. lol. It looks great. Surely they are yummy. Just looking at the photos makes me hungry.
The last time I made blinis was the first time. I made them for our wedding. Buckwheat blinis with creme fraiche and three caviars. I still remember how luxurious they were. I loved them… but they are also a considerable amount of work as I like to see them like yours… similar in size. Thanks for the reminder. I will have to put this back on my appetizer list and try your recipe next.
I also want to make this for a long time, the blinis.
It looks great, so I know I’m gonna make this very soon.
Ok, this look good and everything, but please don’t call these “blinis” becasue they are not. Also, the word “blini” is already plural, no need to say bliniS. Blini look like crepes, period, there is no regional variations whatsoever. If you were to look up crepes, you would not see pancake looking things. Same with blini. The batter use for blini is totaly different as well. These are pancakes and they are not going to turn into blini if you put some salmon with sour cream on them.
You’re probably right…
The thing is that there suddenly popped up all these recipes here in the Netherlands which were all called blini. And I have seen different recipes indeed and also different variations where some would make them thin like crepes, but for whatever reason; around these parts small pancake like ‘blini’ are popping up.
It’s hard to judge if it really were blini, but whatever you call them… They were very tasty!
Simone, your blinis look gorgeous, and with 3 kinds of toppings! Yum.
I wished I had time to make them.
I’ll have to try your recipe.
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