In the past I've opted for bought blinis but consistently been disappointed by their close resemblance to cardboard. This is in stark contrast to the little pats of warm, soft joy that are dished out at good Scandi or Eastern European restaurants' (Verru in London is the best http://www.verru.co.uk/). So last Christmas I decided to make them from scratch...
My plan was almost foiled when I found out that blinis require buckwheat flour, a crucial yet somewhat random ingredient. So in the pre-Christmas panic I headed, with much trepidation, to the food intolerance section of the chemist and blow me down - the shelves were groaning under the weight of the stuff. As a result Christmas lunch started on a high and I even managed to stash a few larger ones in the freezer for Shrove Tuesday.
Ingredients (makes about 30 blinis)
70 g buckwheat flour
70 g plain flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
175 ml warmed milk
1 free range egg, separated
125 g butter, plus 1 tsp melted butter
1/3 tsp dried yeast
soured cream/creme fraiche, smoked fish and lemon, black pepper to serve
Method
1. Sift the buckwheat flour, plain flour and baking powder together.
2. Mix together the dried yeast, warmed milk and egg yolk.
3. Whisk the milk mixture into the flours to make a smooth batter. Stir in the tsp of melted butter.
4. Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks and fold gently into the batter keeping as much volume as possible.
5. Melt the butter in a pan, pour off and keep the clear yellow liquid (clarified butter) and throw away the solids.
6. Heat some of the clarified butter in a frying pan and drop in tsp of the batter. Cook until bubbles start to form on the surface and then flip over.
So very special, and simple.
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