Lenten Russian Blini

History

Blini — yeast-raised pancakes of buckwheat and/or wheat flour — are among the oldest and most emblematic Russian foods, bound above all to Maslenitsa, the 'Butter Week' festival that falls in the last week before Great Lent. Folk tradition reads the round golden cakes as little suns welcoming the return of spring, a pre-Christian association the Orthodox calendar absorbed rather than suppressed. The label постные ('lean' or 'Lenten') ties this particular version to that fasting calendar: during Great Lent the постный стол — the lean table — sets aside meat, animal fat, dairy and eggs, with even vegetable oil restricted to certain days, a discipline that shaped a whole repertoire of grain, vegetable and mushroom cookery. Molokhovets, the great codifier of 19th-century Russian cooking, records both the rich and the lean forms: where her neighbouring blini recipes lean on milk, cream and beaten egg yolks and whites, this 'Lenten Russian' version is built only on buckwheat and wheat flour, yeast, water and oil, omitting the forbidden dairy and eggs. She even preserves the Maslenitsa habit of carrying the leftover dough out into the overnight frost and refreshing it with more flour, yeast and water each day, so that the blini improve as the week goes on.

Ingredients

• glasses buckwheat flour
• glasses wheat flour
• zolotnik dry yeast
• water
• tsp salt
• spoonful sugar
• funt oil/butter (Lenten)

Instructions

1. Use 2/3 wheat to 1/3 buckwheat flour. In the evening set a thick sponge from buckwheat, half the wheat flour, yeast and water.
2. Next day add remaining flour, salt and sugar; let rise.
3. Half an hour before baking, thin with warm water to the consistency of smetana; bake.
4. During Butter Week keep the leftover batter in the cold overnight, refreshing daily with yeast, flour and water — it improves each day.