Belarusian pancakes

Pancakes are some of the world’s most popular flour-based dishes. However every national cuisine has its own cooking traditions and secrets. Pancakes (bliny, blintsy, mliny) are cooked all over Belarus, on weekends and on holidays. There is one thing that differs Belarusian pancakes from pancakes cooked in other countries: Belarusians use all kinds of flour in pancake recipes.

Belarusian pancakes are usually served with traditional sauces (machanka, vereshchaka), fried bacon and sausages, mushroom stew, sour cream and cottage cheese, liquefied honey, grated berries, ground poppy seeds mixed with sugar.

Crepes (nalistniki) are just as popular as puffy pancakes. The most common fillings include cottage cheese and meat. They are baked in clay pots until they form a brown crust.

Small puffy pancakes (called oladiy) are also popular in Belarus. They are often cooked from a mix of flours.

Pancakes are not only some of the most loved everyday dishes in Belarus, but also an integral part folk rites and ancient customs.

Special sacral traditions are associated with pancakes in various regions of our country.

In spring, when cattle were let out to pastures for the first time since winter, villagers used to give a shepherd a pancake for a cow herd to remain plentiful. These pancakes were meant for the spirits of the ancestors as well.

Girls used pancakes to tell their fortune at Yuletide. The girls who met their love would cook pancakes on the second day of the wedding and treat their guests.

On Shchedry Vecher (Generous Eve) on 13 January (the New Year's Eve in accordance with the Julian calendar, the so-called Old New Year) the head of the family, standing on the threshold of the house, would call on the Frost with a pancake in hand. Then a stack of 12 pancakes (by the number of months) was put on a festive table, cut crosswise into four parts, and all members of the family would take a piece. Thus "the year" disappeared from the plate as if in a spiral.

And, of course, pancakes is a must dish for Maslenitsa, the ancient Slavic celebration of bidding farewell to winter and welcoming spring. Round and golden pancakes symbolize the sun and therefore are cooked to please the god of spring, warmth and fertility Yarila.

Today this wonderful tradition lives on. During the Maslenitsa Week pancakes are cooked in every home and are offered at fun street festivals. In 2013 Belarus even set a kind of a pancake reword.

The Belarusian national cuisine has many pancake recipes, each of which, despite simple ingredients, has a unique taste. The variety of flours, cooking tricks and of course traditional supplements is the secret of the Belarusian-style pancakes. Here are a couple of them.

Just try them!

Morning Pancakes

Ingredients:

4 cups flour
1.5 cups milk
1 tablespoon sugar
30g yeast
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
water

Cooking Method

Dissolve yeast in warm water, add flour and three glasses of water, mix it and leave for the night. Boil milk in the morning and pour it immediately into the batter, add eggs, salt, sugar, and butter. Whisk the batter and leave it for about 30 minutes.

Cook pancakes on a well-heated and oiled pan. Serve pancakes with melted butter, sour cream or curd.

Nalistniki (crepes with fillings)

Ingredients:

1 ½ glasses wheat flour
2 glasses milk or whey
2 eggs
200g quark
2-3 tablespoons butter
½ glass sour cream or cream
salt

Cooking Method

Mix flour with half of the milk until you get smooth dough; add salt, the rest of the milk and whipped egg whites. Fry pancakes on both sides on a frying pan.

For the filling, mix quark with a small amount of sour cream and yolk. Put the filling inside and roll the pancakes tightly. Berries can be used instead of quark.

Put the rolled pancakes into a ceramic pot, add some sour cream or cream, and bake them in the oven. The pancakes can be served with sour cream or jam.