Fed up with hunting down blini for the New Year’s Eve canapé, and then finding them a bit tough and dry? Make your very own with this lovely recipe, which I’ve adapted from Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall’s.
500g plain white flour
350ml warm milk
350ml warm water (approximately)
5g powdered dried yeast
5g salt
1 tsp baking powder
A little sunflower or vegetable oil
Whisk together the flour, milk, water and yeast in a bowl and leave in a warm place to get bubbly for an hour (or more).
Heat a heavy frying pan or skillet and grease lightly with a piece of kitchen towel dipped in oil. Make sure the heat is medium. Whisk the salt and baking powder into the batter. The batter should be the consistency of thick cream.
Drop a small spoonful of batter into the pan (the size you’d like the blini or pikelets to be). When you see bubbles on the surface, flip it over and cook for a couple of minutes on the other side – you can take a peek and see if it is brown. Remove to a warm plate.
Now drop in several spoonfuls and repeat until all the batter is finished. You can re-grease the pan as necessary.
These are delicious with a spoonful of sour cream, a dollop of caviar and some chopped chives. Alternatively they make a superb breakfast loaded with butter and jam, marmite, nutella or golden syrup. Reheat them gently under the grill or in a toaster (for the bigger ones).
You can keep them for a couple of days in a plastic bag in the bread bin, but ours never last that long!
