This post is sponsored by our generous friend Katya and her fisherman dad who treated us with the freshest caviar out there 🙂 Thank you, thank you!
You know life is great when you’re eating this. Classic Russian Kefir Crepes, or as we call them bliny, served with caviar. These thin Russian Kefir Crepes are my favorite weekend breakfast. Slavic people love their bliny and even have a holiday dedicated to it, called Maslenitsa. It’s when everybody makes and eats blini with whole bunch of different fillings for a week. Very healthy, I know!
There are many traditional ways to serve them. Sweet or savory. Try them with smoked salmon, jelly, sour cream, cream cheese, honey, condensed milk or with everything above. Alternatively, you can stuff them with fillings and roll into little burritos. Not counting the amount of bliny you’ve eaten is another Russian tradition.
Bliny have a reputation for being difficult to make. There is even a common statement in Russian, “the first blin always comes out as a lump,” meaning do not get discouraged if your first effort is less than perfect, eventually you’ll get a hang of it. Especially with modern non-stick skillets making bliny is not hard at all. All it takes is a little practice and patience. And if you quickly eat your first lumpy blin – no one will notice it wasn’t perfect!
The main secret to achieving the beautiful lacy and airy crepes is using Kefir in the batter instead of milk. Kefir is a traditional Russian dairy beverage similar to yogurt, but with a runnier consistency. You can find a good bottle of Kefir in any Eastern European stores, but even Costco has a good one. Kefir encourages fermentation in the batter and acts as a main factor to lacy crepes.
The batter for these Russian Kefir Crepes is a piece of cake – mix some kefir with eggs, a pinch of sugar and salt. It’s slightly heated on the stove and then mixed with flour and the rest of the ingredients. This technique is used in choux batters similar to the one in eclais. In Russia we call them zavarnie bliny. Then mix the batter with hot boiling water and a pinch of baking soda. This will give our crepes a beautiful silky consistency and more bubbles. Mix in the oil and you are ready to go. Easy!
You can use any kind of flour in the crepe batter, but for these Russian Kefir Crepes I used all-purpose white. Check out my recipe for gluten free crepes as well!
Ingredients:
2 cups Kefir
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup boiling water
4 tbsp oil
butter for greasing
In a medium pot whisk together Kefir, eggs, salt and sugar. Heat the mixture so it’s warm (not hot) to the touch, about 2-3 minutes, whisking constantly.
Then take it off the heat, pour it into the medium bowl and sift in the flour. Whisk everything to combine. The batter is going to get pretty thick, but don’t worry we will dissolve it with hot water later.
Once everything is mixed, add baking soda to 1 cup of boiling water and slowly pour it into the batter whisking constantly. Add oil and mix once more.
Preheat 2 non-stick pans over medium-high heat and grease it with a little knob of butter. I prefer to use 2 skillets at the same time as it makes things go much faster. When the pans are hot, working one at a time, pour in about 1/4-1/3 cup of batter, depending on the size of your pan, into one side of the pan and swirl it quickly to cover the entire pan with a thin layer of batter.
When the top of the crepe has no more wet spots and edges turn crispy, run the spatula underneath the edges of the crepe, then lift it with hands or spatula and flip it over. Cook for another 30 seconds and remove to a plate.
Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking crepes until no more batter remains greasing the pan with butter before each crepe. Stack cooked crepes one on top of each other and serve.
These crepes can be served with either sweet or savory condiments.
- 2 cups Kefir
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup boiling water
- 4 tbsp oil
- butter for greasing
- In a medium pot whisk together Kefir, eggs, salt and sugar. Heat the mixture so it’s warm (not hot) to the touch, about 2-3 minutes, whisking constantly.
- Then take it off the heat, pour it into the medium bowl and sift in the flour. Whisk everything to combine. The batter is going to get pretty thick, but don’t worry we will dissolve it with hot water later.
- Once everything is mixed, add baking soda to 1 cup of boiling water and slowly pour it into the batter whisking constantly.
- Add oil and mix once more.
- Preheat 2 non-stick pans over medium-high heat and grease it with a little knob of butter.
- When the pans are hot, working one at a time, pour in about 1/4-1/3 cup of batter, depending on the size of your pan, into one side of the pan and swirl it quickly to cover the entire pan with a thin layer of batter.
- When the top of the crepe has no more wet spots and edges turn crispy, run the spatula underneath the edges of the crepe, then lift it with hands or spatula and flip it over. Cook for another 30 seconds and remove to a plate.
- Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking crepes until no more batter remains greasing the pan with butter before each crepe.
- Stack cooked crepes one on top of the other and serve. These crepes can be served with either sweet or savory condiments.
This is a very interesting recipe, can you explain the reason for heating up the mixture as well as the use of billing water? I have never seen this technique!
The yeast in the kefir gets activated when heated and then produces carbon dioxide which is a leavening agent and makes for a light, fluffy batter. Same with water and baking soda. The heat from the water activates the baking soda which creates a chemical reaction, the end product being more carbon dioxide. More carbon dioxide in batter = light, fluffy blini.
Fuckin disgusting. Followed this arduous recipe to the T and the crepes are sour and not edible.
Will not be using your recipes.
Ummm. Have you had a Russian blini before? They’re supposed to have a bit of tang. Kefir is a fermented milk drink which is inherently a bit sour. Maybe you thought they would taste like French crepes? Or IHOP crepes? If you think blin are sour, you should probably try to avoid injera which are Ethiopian crepes. Turns out a lot of different cultures have their own take on the crepe and not all crepes have the same flavor profile.
My husband is from Saint Petersburg, Russia and this recipe is dead on. I use this recipe to supplement the recipe we got from his babushka (her recipe doesn’t have measurements, much like a lot of old school grandmas). Husband and I make these frequently and eat them with dry aged sliced meats and whatever cheese we have on hand. I tend to just slather them in salted butter and try not to eat them all in one sitting. Seriously though, I’ve tried a handful of recipes trying to make blin as close to babushka’s as possible and this recipe is IT.