YIELDS:
6-8 servings
PREP TIME:
0 hours 10 mins
COOK TIME:
0 hours 30 mins
TOTAL TIME:
0 hours 40 mins
ingredients
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon sugar (or Lankato sweetener)
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Kosher salt
1/4 cup whole milk (or skim milk)
1 large egg, separated
2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter, plus more for cooking (or Land O’Lakes Lite Butter)
Sour Cream (or Fat Free Fage Greek Yogurt)
Fresh Chives
Salmon Roe
DIRECTIONS
1) In a bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Whisk in the milk and the egg yolk. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg white until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg white into the batter until combined. Fold the 2 tablespoons melted butter into the batter.
2) In a large non-stick skillet, heat about 1/2 tablespoon of butter over medium heat until hot. Working in batches, spoon level 1 tablespoons of the batter into the skillet and cook until bubbly and dry on top, about 1 minute. Don’t pour more batter than that. These are supposed to be small, appetizer size pancakes. Flip the blini over and cook until golden on the bottoms, about 45 seconds more. Transfer the blini to a serving platter and repeat with the remaining batter.
3) Serve the blini with sour cream or yogurt and top with a little salmon roe and two small pieces of cut chives.
NOTE: Blini are such elegant little bites of heaven and can really be lightened up by the use of alternative ingredients. If I have a health conscious group at my home, I substitute lankato monk fruit for the sugar, use fat free Fage Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, skim milk instead of whole and I also use a light butter. The taste is the same and your guests will get the same fabulous experience. I have learned to do a lot of substitutions when I cook and when I find great ingredients and good substitutions; I will share them with you here. You can really cut back on saturated fats and sugar when preparing food with a couple of good subs.
You can make these in advance and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve or just make up to a day ahead and refrigerate them. Just reheat in a 350-degree oven for about 5 minutes and you are ready to go.
Caviar is the traditional topping on blini but it is definitely not in everyone’s budget. A really good substitute is a reasonably priced salmon roe. I have an abundance of great supermarkets in my area and I can easily source a good one but if you can’t, you’ll find all kinds of options online. You can pick up a small jar for $12 – $15. Another tip: if you are rushed and want to pull this together really fast, GELSON’s supermarket sells these premade Blinis in their cheese department and they are really good. Keep a box in the refrigerator, heat them up when you are ready to assemble your starter and you are set for a gourmet appetizer or a great nibble with a cocktail. This is a no brainer to keep on hand. Easy, fast and delicious.
