Blinis are Russian pancakes. They are the size of a normal pancake. The small version we use to eat smoked salmon, the purists call them "oladi", and the "mini" version is a recent invention, which has nothing to do with traditional Russian cooking, but which is a good idea. and the "mini" version is a recent invention, which has nothing to do with traditional Russian cuisine, but is very convenient for a small bite in a cocktail.

Russian recipes have travelled around the world, with the Russian princes, with post-revolutionary emigration, they have also adapted to modern or local tastes, but a blini is neither a pancake (because it has holes) nor a baghir (because it is not the same flour nor the same thickness).
In all the recipes proposed on the web, how to find your way?
I listed three different recipes:
- the recipe for old-fashioned buckwheat blini, which was made in the great Russian houses in the 19th century
- the "grandmother's recipe for blini", a Russian friend's babushka, a recipe I used for a long time
- finally, my recipe for Moroccan blini, which is a personalised mixture of the two previous ones, but which you can make anywhere.
Dozens of blini recipes

And like all traditional recipes, there are many variations. As early as October 1927, a culinary columnist reported:
Some use buckwheat flour, others wheat flour, and some mix the two flours.
This one uses fresh cream, that one sour cream.
There is no agreement on the number of eggs, nor on the quantity of milk, and even less on the quantity of whites to be beaten.
Where we do agree, for example, is on the use of yeast, on the excellence of the preparation and the perfect accompaniment that the blinis make to the caviarGrégoire Beliankine, in 'La Côte basque: revue illustrée de l'Euzkalerria'
For the record, Count Gregory Beliankine was Igor Stravinsky's brother-in-law. To find out more, click on the small circle…
.The markers of the blini recipe
I've put Beliankine's text here because he explains very well the markers of the blini recipe and the different options you can play with.
A fermented dough
Real blinis are light, airy, with a consistency reminiscent of a baghrirthat is quite firm (holes, but a pancake that holds together more).

The basis of the recipe is to ferment the dough for a long time with yeast (or, in the old-fashioned way, with sourdough, which is also very good).
This is how you get a liquid dough that rises a lot and makes thick pancakes, whereas you can panic when you first mix the milk and flour in equal amounts: the dough is very firm, almost like a cake dough.
The dough is very firm, almost like cake dough, but with fermentation it will double in volume, at least.
Consequently, after each addition of ingredients, the dough must be given time to close up (bubble up again).
Mixing the flours
Real blini always contain buckwheat flour, mixed with another flour, usually wheat, in proportions ranging from one third to half buckwheat flour, depending on your taste. Personally, I use half and half.
The more buckwheat flour, the longer you have to wait for the fermentation.
Milk or water
What liquid to use for the blini dough? In the cold country of Russia in the 19th century, with no refrigerator and no milking factories, milk was rather rare and difficult to preserve and often cooked. So water was easily used for this recipe. And it is easier to make leaven with water than with milk.
Today, with yeast, you can use milk without any problem. It gives more richness to the dough, and lightens the patties. So if you have difficulties with lactose, you can use water without any problem — but you can't do without cream, though!
Creams and butter
Butter is an option: you can replace it with cooking oil to grease the pans, and refrain from brushing the blinis with it. Some recipes — including the babushka recipe — mix eggs with melted butter. This can be avoided.
Cream, on the other hand, is essential. If you don't know how to make whipped cream, it's not a big deal, but don't use commercial spray cream, which will be sweet. Personally, I have tried two or three times, without succeeding too well with my whipped cream, and without seeing any difference in the end.

Egg whites whipped to a stiff consistency
This is the most "secret" part, which has disappeared from recipes today, at least in France. Another friend, an American of Russian origin, told me one day "no, but wtf, you don't beat your egg whites until they are stiff" and so I modified the recipe for babushka. This makes the pastry even more airy. I was delighted to find this step in the recipe below.
An old recipe from the Académie de cuisine de Paris
In 1884, for example, we find this recipe, proposed by a certain Combes, ex-chef of a Russian house (one day I'll have to tell you how the French and Russian revolutions were at the root of an emigration and then a return of the chefs, and the impact this had on French cuisine, particularly with Escoffier).
Old-fashioned buckwheat blinis (Blinis Gretschnvoi)
Ingredients
- 1 kilo Buckwheat flour
- 30 gr Yeast
- 1 litre Water
- 500 gr Wheat flour
- 0,5 litre Full cream
- Salt
- 6 Egg
- 250 gr Cream Estimated quantity for whipped cream
- Butter Melted, for cooking
Instructions
Preparing the blinis
- Put two pounds of buckwheat flour in a saucepan, from which you form a leaven in warm water with three ounces [85 g] of yeast. Cover the pan and place in a moderately warm place.
- Leave to rest for four hours.
- Add one pound of wheat flour, six egg yolks, half a bottle (1/2 litre?) of lukewarm cream and a little salt; mix everything together well, beating lightly to obtain a smooth and light paste.
- Fold in the six stiffly whipped egg whites and half the volume of the whipped cream whites; mix in by removing the dough very slightly like biscuit.
- Leave for another 20 minutes before cooking.
Cooking the blinis
- After greasing your blini pans with melted butter, put a steaming spoonful of the mixture into each one, taking care to keep it underneath so as not to stir the mass.
- You push your little pans onto the stove and then, once they have been turned over, you put them in the oven after having previously buttered them with the brush; when the other side has taken on colour, you take them out.
Service
- The blinis are served on a hot napkin, with a sauce boat of melted butter [it's 1884…] and a sauce boat of sour cream (Smitane) as well as a small plate of caviar.
Notes
The babushka's recipe
As I told you, it comes from the Russian grandmother of a friend, whose family was not from St. Petersburg. I don't know more about it. She doesn't use beaten egg whites, and that's her biggest flaw.
Blinis from his grandmother
Ingredients
- 0.6 l Milk
- 200 ml Cream
- 2 Egg
- 30 gr Butter
- 300 gr Wheat flour
- 200 gr Buckwheat flour
- 15 gr Yeast
Instructions
- Warm some of the milk (to 30°, 45° degrees maximum).
- Add the yeast to the milk and mix well
- Melt the butter
- Put the melted butter in the bottom of the bowl
- Mix the two flours
- Add the milk to the flours and mix well
- Add salt and caster sugar
- Leave to rest, between 1h30 and 4h
- Cooking in small pans
My blini recipe after years of experience
My first Russian New Year's Eve was over 35 years ago, in a small studio with more guests than square metres! So I've been able to try out different versions and mixtures… even since I've been in Morocco.
My own recipe for blini
Equipment
- Blinis pan
Ingredients
- 0.4 l Milk
- 0.2 l Leben (sour milk)
- 200 ml Fresh cream
- 4 Egg
- 30 gr Butter
- 250 gr Wheat Flour
- 250 gr Buckwheat Flour
- 15 gr Yeast
Instructions
- Warm some of the milk (to 30°, 45° degrees maximum).
- Add the yeast to the milk and mix well
- Add the leben to the milk
- Add the beaten egg yolks to the milk and mix
- Mix the two flours in a bowl
- Add the milk to the flours and mix well
- Leave to rest, between 2h30 and 4h
- Beat the egg whites until stiff and mix gently with the flour
- Let stand again for 30 minutes
- Cook in small pans
The little Moroccan "plus" that you can make anywhere
In my latest blini, I replaced some of the milk with leben (whey or ribot milk). This is not heretical, Russian cuisine uses sour cream [smetana]a lot (varenets, for example, or simply prostokvasha, a sour milk drink).
Leben adds a little spicy aftertaste, but not too much.
For the rest, you just have to be careful about two things:
- do not heat the milk too much, so as not to deactivate the yeast (ideal temperature: 30°, maximum 45°)
- beat the egg whites until they are stiff (the famous bird's beak) and do not break them by mixing them too much into the dough
Because of the buckwheat flour, the blinis will be darker than those sold in the shops. This is precisely what makes homemade blinis so interesting!
One last word: the "blini pan" and the cooking of the blini
Blinis take a little longer to cook than pancakes, as the batter is thicker. The cooking time of three minutes is given for a blini. One to three minutes for the first side, one to two minutes for the second side.
The advantage is that you can see the surface of the blini drying out gradually, which indicates that the pancake can be turned over.

As with all pancakes, the pan must be hot, but not too hot, otherwise it will burn. A small amount of fat (melted butter or cooking oil, which is more heat resistant) is quickly applied with a paper towel or a brush and a small amount of batter is poured into the pan.
What is traditionally called a blini pan is a small sheet metal pan, or possibly a group of three pans. It is very easy to find in France (and I imagine elsewhere in Europe), but I have never seen one in Morocco and baghrir pans are not an excellent substitute.
I'll do a detailed comparison soon, but in the meantime here are the important points:
- avoid non-stick coatings
- the bottom should be thick enough
- the edges should be a little high and sloping, so that you can handle the blinis
- the handles must be oven safe
- if you use multi-pan pans, make sure that the hollows are far enough apart from each other
And if you don't have an ovenproof pan, you can always turn your blinis over on a baking sheet with a silpat, like here:
