This is a contemporary bliny recipe, the way we made them when I lived it Russia. We would add just a pinch of baking soda to make them more porous though. The batter should be almost liquid so its easier to pour it on the pan. If it goes too thick, just add more milk/water. The bliny should be thin, as thin as you can make them.
We used to make huge piles of bliny, just buttering and stacking them (often we used 2 frying pans at a time to speed the process - just got to find your rythm :D). Then you pick them one by one, put the jem on (I use freshly blended cranberries + sugar), fold them (we dont roll them like creppes, rather just fold in half, then quarter, then 8th) and eat them while they are hot, with hot black tea with lemon. Thats the way.
ps. There are many recepies for Bliny. Buckweet, oatmeal, with or without yeast - you name it, you can make bliny with them, but the recepies would differ greatly for these varieties. This one better used as it is.
Maybe why some of you had problems with this recipe is because you were trying to make something out of it, that it is not. Blini are not made with this buckwheat, nor can they be "too thin". Blini are -not- crepes or pancakes, as so many people want to think they are if they've never tried them. This is a good recipe, don't try to change it!
If there's two things I can't stand it's pompous foodies who say that a dish can only be made one way and with certain ingredients, and people who drastically change a recipe and then say it didn't turn out well. Unfortunately there's a ton of those kinds of reviews on this site and it's a shame that anyone would be turned off by great recipes reviewed in such ways.
That said, this batter should be thin. Freakishly thin. So much that you worry it's not a batter at all. But trust in the ingredients and it will turn out correctly. Mine almost never come out round, so don't worry if yours don't either.
Keep the heat fairly low, I use the click just to the left of Medium on my stove. But also keep in mind that because of the amount of liquid, these are really hard to burn. Which is good because they need the cooking time in order to stay together.
If you feel the need to add some yeast for the sake of staunch traditionalism, go for it. I didn't notice anything to write home about. This is a good recipe for anyone who doesn't want to waste a whole package of yeast just for some pancakes.
If you feel it needs to be made with buckwheat (though there's nothing in the overall definition of the blini/blintz family that says it has to be made that way), well there is a recipe on here for the buckwheat version.
Lastly, I've also made this recipe with water instead of milk and it worked really well, just decrease the amount of liquid by about a half-cup for the full recipe.
They're good when made good and appreciated for their "thinness";) Yes with sour cream jam and honey is a nice touch. Another thing you can do to them is take cream cheese (whole package) sour cream (about half of a normal size) maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar and cottage cheese. Mix well. Add a spoon or 2 to each of your "blini" roll each one up place in a glass pan (all) and bake for about 20-30 minutes at 325. Check to see if they're done; if cottage cheese is gone then they're done!! Good luck and priyatnovo appetita (bon appetite)!!!!!
The batter was way too thin. I ended up having to call my mom to find out what I was doing wrong and I was told to cut the milk in half with water and add more flour and to not worry so much about the first couple of blinis as they will normally ball up and get ruined. That helped me.
This recipe was OK but a little tricky. I ruined a few blini before figuring out that I had to make sure my pan wasn't too hot when I poured in the batter. If it was the bottom layer cooked instantly and the top part was still liquid- impossible to flip. Otherwise it was good but not the best blini I ever had.
Good recipe. Topped with sour cream and caviar.
The mix of ingredients does not work. Do not try this one!
The batter was thin. I mean THIN thin. Too thin so that I couldn't spread it into a nice round shape in my crepe pan they way I do with crepes. I guess I expected crepe batter consistency. Anyway the first was a disaster so I added some flour to thicken it up and that worked well. Then they were fine though they were really more like crepes than blini as authentic blini are made with buckwheat flour. We tried these because buckwheat is so strongly flavored but next time I'll just make plain ol' crepes.
