How to make a delicious Russian Pancakes (or blini)

I use this recipe for 10 years and my pancakes always come out great. Made of wheat flour, milk and eggs.

Russian pancakes (RP), also known as blini or blinchiki, are really special for people raised in Russia or former USSR. Blini are outstanding. They are REALLY important to us. They are a pearl of Russian cuisine.

They can be stuffed with minced meat, cheese, ham, mushrooms, or anything savory you like.

If you feel that it’s not fancy enough, you can eat them with caviar

![pancake_pie_caviar-3.jpg]

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They can be also eaten with jams, chocolate cream, poppy seeds, condensed milk (sgushenka), berries, honey, apples and cinnamon or every other sweet.

Classic RP are made of wheat flour, milk and eggs (+ some secret ingredients you will find below) but you can experiment with rye or oatmeal flour, use beer or kefir instead of milk or add yeast to the batter.

You can eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner and never get tired of them, as the possibilities are countless.

Here is an example: we have a holiday called Maslenitsa dedicated to pancakes. It comes from an old Slavic tradition to worship the beginning of spring with pancakes, symbolizing the Sun. It was even adopted by the Orthodox church. Maslenitsa lasts for a week. You are supposed to make and eat tons of pancakes during that time. Wherever I am, I keep doing this, because it feels so wrong if I wouldn’t.

So how to make Ultimate Russian Pancakes?

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

• 400 grams or 1 3/4 cups wheat flour;
• 1/2 teaspoon salt;
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda;
• 3 tablespoon sugar;
• 2 eggs;
• 800 ml or 3 1/3 cups milk;
• 100 ml or 1/2 cups cream (for lower calories intake use milk instead);
• 5 tablespoons butter;
• sunflower oil to fry.

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
2. Mix eggs and sugar with a mixer.
3. Add milk and cream while mixing.
4. Gradually add the flour mixture and blend until smooth. The consistency of the batter should be a bit thicker than cream.
5. Heat two pans over high heat. Melt butter and add it to the batter. Blend until smooth.
6. Pour a tiny bit of sunflower oil in both pans.
7. Use a scoop to pour the batter in the middle of the pan. Tilt the pan from side to side while pouring, forming a circle with the batter.
   8)Flip the pancake over with a thin spatula, after the surface looks porous and sides are golden.
   9)Fry for half of the time you fried the first side.
   10)Repeat with the rest.
   11)You might want to put them in the warm oven (not more then 70 °C/160 °F) to keep them hot before serving.
   12)Enjoy!