Happy Saturday! Here is a special recipe that is near and dear to me...
My Grandma Katrina used to make the best blini, (these are russian pancakes), they can be served for breakfast, or for lunch or dinner, with a dollap of jelly, or sour cream, with salmon or caviar. enjoy! ♥
Ingredients ♥
3 large eggs
3 1/4 cups milk
3 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2.5 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2-2.5 tsp dry yeast
Oil to grease the skillet
1 stick margarine to oil ready blini ( I use Smart Balance for a healthier approach)
Makes about 18-20 blini
Tools needed...
1/2 small raw unpeeled potato and a fork for greasing tool
3 quart covered pot (better enameled or at least stainless steel)
Non-stick skillet, 8-9" diameter
Ladle or a big spoon
Wooden spatula
Heat-proof dish to stack ready blini
Garnishes ♥
Salted herring, thinly sliced
Caviar
Melted butter
Soft boiled eggs, chopped
Sour cream
jelly
Directions ♥
1. Scald 1.25 cup of milk in a pot. Separate 1/4 cup and mix it with yeast until dissolved. Beat eggs, stir them in milk, along with yeast, salt and sugar. The mixture must be lukewarm, so if it cooled down, warm it up on very low heat constantly stirring.
2. Add flour and mix well until you get the batter/dough of rather thick consistency, like thick sour cream. Cover the pot, and let the dough rise in a warm place. About 1 hour.
3. While the dough is rising, prepare garnishes (caviar and herring should be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated) and lay the table. Blini are served hot, so later you will have no time for this. Leave boiling of eggs to the end though - it's nice when they are served warm, just take then out of the fridge to acquire room temperature before boiling.
4. When the dough rises and at least triples in size, scald the remaining milk, and mix it in the dough in small portions (about 1/2 cup each), stirring well every time. Small portions of hot milk will not kill the yeast, but will keep the mass very warm. After all milk is in, leave the dough to foam for about 30 minutes, covered. Don't mix the foam!
5. Prepare your baking tools. Pour some olive oil in a small bowl - for greasing your skillet. Make a greasing tool with a half of potato and a fork.
5. Your dough/batter will look like a thick foam when ready to bake. Heat the skillet on high heat, grease it with the potato dipped in oil, scoop a ladle of dough on the skillet, and smear it around. The thick foam will not spread easily just by tilting and turning the skillet.
6. Bake on one side until bubbles form and the surface becomes mat, check if it's nicely browned by lifting the edge a little, then flip over with the spatula and bake on the other side. Adjust the heat so your blini don't burn, but bake through and are beautifully browned. Grease the skillet before each blin, otherwise your blini will not get a nice pattern.
7. Stack blini on the heat-proof dish, second side up (it is smoother and easier to oil), and gently oil each blini with the butter stick. Butter will prevent blini from sticking to one another.
8. When all blini are ready, loosely cover the dish with foil, and toss it into the 175 F oven to keep warm. At this point boil soft eggs.
Serve everything with favorite garnishes. Herring, eggs, caviar, sour cream, jelly.enjoy! ♥
Leftover blini, if any, should be refrigerated. Blini will stick all together, so don't try to separate one blini - it will break. Warm them up all together in a microwave or an oven at 325 F, loosely covered with foil.
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