Blinis are small, puffed Russian pancakes typically served with sour cream and caviar. Blints are thinner, unleavened pancakes filled with fruit or savory ingredients. Chefs may use wheat or buckwheat flour and dilute the batter with water or milk. They should be served shortly after cooking and kept small for even cooking.
Blini could be called pedigreed pancake. They are Russian in origin and made with a leavened batter that creates small puffed pancakes. Typical toppings include sour cream and caviar roe, or caviar, making them fairly standard on menus or catered events of a certain caliber, especially when more expensive caviar is used.
Blints, while similar in name, should be distinguished from blinis. Typically, blints are a much thinner, unleavened pancake that can be very crepe-like. These tend to be filled with fruit, savory ingredients or cottage cheese and browned in oil, and are called in Russia, where the blini originates, blinchiki.
Sometimes spelled blini, these Russian pancakes — when called individually — are called blin. In American cuisine there may be no such distinction for most chefs. Blini can mean one or more cakes. There is also some dispute as to which ingredients are more important in the blini. In particular, there are chefs who advocate wheat flour, while others prefer to use buckwheat. Chefs can adapt recipes and add other types of flour to create different flavored cakes.
Most blinis benefit from being served shortly after cooking, although you can purchase some pre-cooked versions if you don’t have much time to cook. While standard toppings include roe, smoked salmon, or foie gras, sometimes you don’t need to save these pancakes for just savory dishes. They can be delicious served with a little butter and jam, or even just eaten plain. Some cooks find them so good that they have to expand their recipes to account for “missing” cakes as they prepare them.
You’ll find numerous recipes online for these yeast pancakes. A good tip is to always look for recipes that ask you to dilute the batter with water or other liquids such as milk and eggs (hot or cold). Since these pancakes are different than most others by using yeast as a leavening agent, they can be difficult to cook without being diluted appropriately.
Note that you’ll also need to plan on some extra time when preparing recipes. You’ll usually need to let the yeast and flour mix sit for about an hour before adding the final ingredients or diluting the mixture. Choose a warm, dry place during the rising process or you’ll end up with pancakes that fall flat.
As for size, you can usually get the perfect size blini using about a generous teaspoon of batter for each cake. This will give you cakes about an inch (about 2.54cm) or slightly more or less in diameter. Remember to keep the cakes small as they cook more evenly to a golden brown and will be perfectly sized for an appetizer or two.
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