French Friday with Dorie: Buckwheat Blini and Traditional Blini

BUCKWHEAT AND TRADITIONAL BLINI

 Blini wrappers make such pretty and delicious containers for a variety of foods.  They are delicious both savory and sweet and with both savory and sweet fillings.  These wrappers are filled and used as a "Russian sandwich"...they do not eat sandwiches like Americans do...with bread on both the bottom and the top, but these packets are filled with cooked veges, meats, and fruits, and are usually eaten as finger foods.

FOR TRADITIONAL:  WHISK THE EGGS UNTIL THEY ARE CREAMY AND THICK

We began experiencing a new phenomena as soon as we brought home our 2 adopted Russian daughters.  Everywhere we went we met Russian immigrants and many become our friends.  One became an employee for a year.  Others helped translate for us before our girls could speak English.

COMBINE BUTTER WITH OIL IN THE COOKING PAN--PREVENTS THE BUTTER FROM BURNING

The people we met while in  Slavic countries love to come here, to America, often to visit for 6 months at a time.  Some have had our help to come on student visas to get an education and training which are not available in their own countries.  One of these, Julia, is like another daughter to me.

TOOLS:  PARCHMENT PAPER LAYERED BETWEEN THE WRAPPERS AND A SILICONE SPATULA PERFECTLY FLIPS THE BLIN IN THE PAN

This weekend, a dear “Russian” family will be returning to Moldova after a 6 month stay.  We met them, Alex and Marina, who now have a small son, at our children’s orphanage, and they have been to America twice since then, living only a 10 minute walk from us.  Their first stay was for 2 years and this stay has been for 6 months.

STACK OF ALL PURPOSE FLOUR BLINI WRAPPERS

All these Russians have a common skill of not cooking with cookbooks.  In fact, Russian cookbooks are rare.  (But they all do very little baking.) We had difficulty finding cookbooks for our girls who wanted to learn to cook Russian foods as they missed tastes from their country that could not be explained to me.
      
Both Julia and Marina often bring me gifts of blintz, or blini, which are the same thing, just in a different language, containing a variety of fillings.  Theirs include mashed potatoes, meats such as chicken, cheeses, or fruits such as sour cherries.  These treats are either rolled, like crepes, or they are folded into “envelop” packets, similar to a Chinese eggroll.

The old Russian or Ukrainian blini (or blinchiki) are traditionally made with buckwheat flour and contain yeast.  More modern blini are similar to French crepes and do not contain yeast.  The Russians I know also call this food “pancakes,” and they do not use yeast.  When Julia first came we made our pancakes for her and she made her pancakes for us...we called hers “crepes.”

The Orthodox Church carries on a tradition of honoring the round, new sun, following winter, which began in pre-Christian times. Hence the round crepe shape makes the perfect food to serve for this ritual.   This tradition continues to this day.  Blini, or blintz, are also the traditional food served at wakes to honor the recently deceased.  (My girls associate buckwheat with wakes and therefore buckwheat is not desirable to them.)

All my Russian friends use all purpose flour to make this food and none of them like buckwheat.  A couple of years ago I thought I was doing them a favor when I purchased a package of buckwheat flour and made blini for them; it was rejected as being “yucky” and I was asked to never bake or cook with that type of flour again.  None of their friends or family use buckwheat which is actually grown only in one distant country, I think Lithunia, part of the old USSR, but not Russia or other USSR break-offs, according to my friends.

CHEESE FILLING--TRADITIONAL

PUMPKIN FILLING--MY INVENTION

My friends also like to fill these packets with sauteed mushrooms; their favorite along with potatoes, onions, cabbage, and some like caviar.    They also like to layer the “crepes” and drizzle melted butter between the layers.  They add sour cream and jam or honey.  They also roll them with a cherry filling and layer the rolls on a large platter, forming a pyramid shape.  Whipped cream is added to the top.

According to wikipedia, Russian Jewish immigrants brought blini to America.  Their traditional fillings are with cheeses like our cream cheese, ricotta or cottage cheese and a sweetener.

COVERED WITH PLASTIC WRAP THE BUCKWHEAT/YEAST BATTER IS RESTING

GETS BUBBLY AFTER AN HOUR

My friend Marina, recently made blini for me with mashed potatoes, and some with a seasoned meat.  Because I wanted to try a few different things, I decided to make dessert blini today, and in honor of the fall holidays, I chose to fill some with a pumpkin mixture, and one with a traditional cheese mixture.  I am making lots for both my family to try, and to take to Alex and Marina and their son as a parting gift.  It is possible I will not see them again...takes lots of money to come to America and they are from an extremely poor country with an unemployment rate of 68%.

THE BUCKWHEAT WRAPPERS ARE COOKING

STACK OF BUCKWHEAT WRAPPERS

For the pumpkin filling,  I decided to open the cupboard and see what looked good.  I used the following and would do it again...it’s delicious!  Honest...this is really good!

1 large can pumpkin puree–the 2 pie size
3/4 C sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 T cinnamon
1 t  nutmeg

I mixed these ingredients together and used as my pumpkin filling.

After rolling or folding the “crepes”, I sprinkled cinnamon and powdered sugar on top.  A little drizzle of maple syrup or other sweet topping would be great as would whipped cream, however, today mine are finger foods.

For the AP flour  blini wrappers I used:
2 C all purpose flour
½ C sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 t salt
1 1/3 C whole milk
2/3 C water
3/4 stick melted butter
8 large eggs

I cooked the batter in non-stick small fry pans coated with a little butter mixed with oil between each batch so the butter would not burn and the blini would slide right out of the pans onto my stack...about 1/4 cup batter used for each blini.

I whisked the eggs till thick and creamy yellow.  Then added all other liquids and mixed together.  I whisked the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.  Then I mixed the dry all at once with the wet.  Whisked just until the little flour lumps were gone.  I cooked immediately like I would a pancake.  I made a stack of these wrappers with a square of parchment between each...so they don’t stick together.

For the cheesy filling I used:
2   8-oz packages room temperature cream cheese, whisked till smooth.
1 cup cottage cheese, which I had. I also like ricotta cheese.
2/3 cup sugar
1 t vanilla

Mix these ingredients together just until combined.

These blintz are good with fruit such as strawberries.

Note: blintz or blini are plural; blin is singular

If the filled and folded blintz are re-fried, the heat seals them shut.

For today’s project, I also made Dorie’s buckwheat, yeasted recipe which I will also take to my Russian friends.  Just for fun, I’ll see if they can enjoy buckwheat in this recipe.  Personally, I think it will be good, especially with my sweet fillings.

As always, I’ll be interested to see how my cyberfriends fared with this recipe, using the requested FfwD ingredients.  Personally, I really like both types.  The buckwheat makes me feel like I'm eating something a little more healthy as my flour is freshly ground and a whole grain flour.

Happy Friday to ALL!

NOTE:  I actually rolled the "gift" blini that went to my friends...my rolling looks lots better than my folding.