Buckwheat Blini
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1teaspoon active dry yeast
- ½teaspoon sugar
- 2tablespoons lukewarm water
- 1cup plus 2 tablespoons lukewarm 1 percent or 2 percent milk
- 1cup buckwheat flour
- ¾cup all-purpose flour
- ¾teaspoon salt
- ½cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
- 2tablespoons canola oil or melted butter
- 2large eggs, separated
Nutritional analysis per serving (20 servings)
68 calories; 3 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 1 gram sugars; 3 grams protein; 90 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water in a large bowl. Stir in the lukewarm milk, and let stand for five minutes until creamy.
- Step 2
Sift together the flours and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk into the yeast mixture. Whisk in the buttermilk or yogurt, the oil or melted butter, and the egg yolks. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise in a warm spot for one hour or longer until bubbly.
- Step 3
Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Fold them into the batter. Cover again, and allow to rise for another 30 minutes until bubbly.
- Step 4
Lightly grease a heavy nonstick or cast iron griddle, and heat over medium heat until hot. For bite-size blini that you can pass as hors d’oeuvres, ladle on 1 to 2 tablespoons of batter for each silver-dollar-size blini. For larger, pancake-sized blini, ladle on about ¼ scant cup per blini. Cook until holes break through the upper side, about a minute. Turn and brown on the other side for about 30 seconds. Remove to a rack or a plate. If serving right away, wrap them in a towel or place them in a low oven to keep warm. If not serving right away, wrap them in foil and reheat them for about 20 minutes in a 325-degree oven. To freeze, stack them between pieces of parchment or wax paper, and wrap them airtight in plastic, then foil. To thaw, remove them from the plastic, rewrap them in foil, and place them in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Alternately, remove the foil and thaw them in a microwave oven.
- Advance preparation: Blini keep well for a couple of days in the refrigerator and can be frozen for up to a month. Whether refrigerating or freezing, stack them between layers of parchment or wax paper, wrap them airtight in plastic, and then place them in freezer bags.
Private Notes
Comments
We made blini last night to honor my grandparents who fled St. Petersburg in 1919, had two children in Sweden and two more in Switzerland before attempting to settle in Belgium, only to flee to Paris in 1939 and then to flee from Paris in 1940; the survivors ended up in NYC in 1942. So in their memory we made blini and served them with caviar and sour cream and mushroom caviar and lox and herring and beets...and of course vodka. To their memories! Oh, yes, the blini: they were delicious.
This is a perfect blini recipe, not overpowering in taste, just the perfect support for smoked salmon. It takes longer than an hour to prepare though...
This is a perfect recipe. I made blinis quite often before these, but this recipe is the best. We had them with smoked salmon (and lemon and fromage blanc).
The 5-star rating lured me to try these rather than Martha Rose Schulman's vastly superior version, also found on the NYT Cooking site. These aren't bad; they're just bland. Schulman's recipe calls for buttermilk or yogurt and more salt. They're lighter and more flavorful. And you can make them mini, as well.
Faced with two competing blini recipes with very different proportions of flour and buckwheat flour, one from a Russian cookbook and one from the NYTimes Magazine in 1971 (!!), I sought help from NYTimes Cooking. This recipe used fewer eggs and took less time. The result: delicious! I had enough better to make blini for a first course with caviar and champagne, and enough to make seven crepe-sized pancakes to wrap and freeze for another purpose. Will make this recipe again!
A delightful pancake. Yeast leavening works well - result is light and flavorful. Made these for a gluten free friend so I used 1-to-1 GF flour. Would like to try it with wheat flour. Ate with homemade cream cheese and a bit of yogurt, smoked salmon and sliced green onion. Very nice.
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