I make - blini with smoked salmon

Blini are small, leavened buckwheat pancakes which are traditionally served with sour cream, caviar or smoked salmon. The singular for blini is blin. Russian style blini use bread yeast as a leavening agent while a more convenient way is to use baking powder. I chose the traditional Russian style since it's my first time. You will have to wait for one hour and that's pretty much the only difference between two methods of making blinis. This recipe below gives me 40 blinis, cute enough to serve as elegant canapes.

Russian style blini

- 100 g plain flour
- 70 g buckwheat or wholewheat flour
- 1 teaspoon fast-action yeast
- 1 egg, separated
- 250 mL lukewarm milk
- 1 teaspoon caster sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon of melted butter
- oil/butter to cook the blini

Mix two flour in one bowl. In another bowl, mix tepid milk, sugar and yeast. Mix the yeast mixture well and stir in one egg yolk with a folk. Gently incorporate the flour mixture into the liquid bowl until a smooth (and loose) batter is formed. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel (or clingfilm) and leave it in a warm place to ferment for one hour. The batter will be thicken up after a while. Don't ferment the batter more than one hour as it is likely to develop yeasty smell in the blini.

Right before the end of one-hour fermentation, beat the egg white in a clean bowl until hard peaks are formed. Fold the stiff egg white into the blini batter and then the melted butter.

Heat a flat skillet on medium heat with two tablespoons of fat (I use vegetable oil and butter). When the skillet is heated through, drop one tablespoon of the batter to the skillet to make small round blini. I can fit 5-6 blini in a 24-cm round skillet. When you see bubbles appear on the center of the blini, this means heat has come through to the top. Flip them over with a rubber spatula/fish slice/offset spatula and cook for another 30-60 seconds. Remove the cooked blini to a sheet pan. Repeat the same process for the remaining batter.

Serve immediately with toppings of your choice (smoked salmon and cream fraiche is a classic). Blini can also be made in advance and freeze.