Before it’s ground into flour, buckwheat looks like a pile of tiny, three-sided pyramids. After it’s ground, sifted, and baked into pancakes, buckwheat is delicious.
This traditional Russian dish highlights buckwheat’s place of origin (Siberia) and is very versatile. Add your choice of accompaniments and eat these treats for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks. Make a batch on Sunday and enjoy throughout the week! If you are trying to reduce the amount of gluten in your diet, use all buckwheat flour instead of the soft white wheat flour.
2/3 cups Nash’s soft white wheat flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg, separated
Vegetable oil (high heat)
Optional accompaniments
Butter
Sour cream
Crème fraîche
Caviar
Smoked fish (salmon, sturgeon, trout, whitefish)
Chopped onions
Chopped hard-boiled eggs
Fresh chopped dill
Beet salad
In a bowl, mix the first four dry ingredients together and then make a well in the center. Add the milk and blend well with a wooden spoon. Cover with a dish towel and place in a warm, draft-free area and let the sponge rise until it doubles in size, about a hour.
Melt the butter and let it cool. Break up and beat the egg yolk in a small bowl and add the cooled melted butter a teaspoon at a time (this is an important step to temper the batter) and beat well. Add this egg yolk/butter mixture to the sponge and mix well.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg white until stiff and fold into the sponge/batter. Cover again and let stand for twenty minutes.
Heat a skillet or griddle to medium heat and coat lightly with vegetable oil. Spoon about 2 tablespoons to a quarter cup of batter on the skillet, depending on how large you want your bliny to be. When the bubbles on the surface of the batter pop (after about a minute or two) turn the bliny over with a spatula and cook for another 45 seconds to a minute. Transfer to a plate and keep warm. Serve with your preferred accompaniments.
We thank thekitchn.com for this recipe.