babushka's blinchiki
& a bit about me + my belarusian family!
I was SO happy to see how well received these blinchiki were on IG + Tiktok. Because if they weren’t, that would’ve been a direct attack on my babushka and then we’d be fightin. But really, it meant to much for me to share a little bit of my childhood and ~culture~ with you. So slay blinchiki. If you missed the video, blinchiki are like eastern european crepes (but I think they’re better)
And fiiiine I’ll give you some back story on my family. Both of my parents are from the capital of Belarus. I won’t judge if you have no idea where the hell that is, most don’t. But it is a landlocked country bordered by Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania and Latvia. My moms family still lives there, but she came to America with my dad when she was like 21 so I could live out the American Dream. So I was born in Brooklyn along with my older sister and am totally living the dream so thank you mama and papa :’)
I’ve visited Belarus 4 times, and every time I went, I would always ask my babushka to teach me how to make something of hers because you guys would die. My grandma prepares BARRELS of pickled cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms etc on her balcony during the spring and then eats them throughout the year and shares with the rest of the family/community. She also goes into the woods and forages mushrooms and wild berries. One year I went with her and let me tell you - that shit is scary and SO tiring on the back, like not very cottage core romanticized as you think (pics below lol). My uncle also hunts, and then my grandma cures the meats and makes her own cold cuts. She does it all.
In the summertime, they go to their “dacha” which is like a summer house but make it a little wooden cottage, in villages. The bathroom is an out house, there’s a handmade sauna outside, they grow all their own produce and share with their community and everyone swims in a pond (with inflatable mattresses as floaties lol). It’s crazy and was definitely a culture shock to little new york me when I went for the first time. But by the end of it, I was digging potatoes out of the ground, couldn’t be dragged out of this mysterious pond and didn’t want to leave.
Now, the only issue with bringing my babushkas recipes over to my kitchen is, they don’t ~really~ exist. You’ll get random units of measure, general ingredients and consistency markers. But, I put my measuring cups to good use and got the consistency pretty down pat based on my notes from watching her, so you can recreate these too!
I will say, the first few you make might take some practice to get fully right, the first and last are usually always fugly though. From there, you can see if maybe your batter is too thin or thick and add a spoonful of milk or flour to the batter. But I included a bunch of troubleshooting for you below so you should be as golden as your freshly made blinchiki ;)
And the best part about blinchiki is they can be eaten either sweet or savory. My mom used to add a meat and mushroom mixture into them and then roll them up like mini burritos, lightly fry them on a saute pan, dip in sour cream and just devourrrrr them. I am now viciously feening that, let me know if you’re interested in that recipe.
And sweet wise, you can do the same - with farmers cheese and fruit preserves or even just jam alone. Roll them up, fry them, and dust with some sugar. AND omg I almost forgot - one of my absolute favorite ways to eat them - with sour cream and ikra (salmon roe). I know more often you see them on mini blini rounds, but I much prefer them on a blinchik. The soft and slightly stretchy blanket of dough wraps around the bursting little bubbles and silky sour cream - it’s the perfect balance of saltiness and textures. Truuuuust. But either way you go, you just can’t go wrong. They’re so good + easy to make so you must try!
