Blini gluten free & lactose free (pancakes)

Don’t know about you, but one of my favorite dishes is pancakes, which in Russia we called – blini 🙂 They are much more thinner than pancakes. (Further I’ll call them pancakes for simplicity). I loved them and always fried in huge quantities all year round. The first experiments with gluten free pancakes – were pancakes made of buckwheat flour, as well as from a mixture of buckwheat and rice flour. But (because of the specific characteristics of buckwheat flour), these particular experiments was not successful – the pancakes had unusual taste, and they are very hard to fry. Fliping pancakes made from buckwheat flour is a very hard process and a decent portion of pancakes remained smeared on the pan. In general – I did not like it.

Fortunately, now I know that there is a special gluten free flour for pancakes! I use the flour by Schar and proportions in this recipe are selected on the basis of its characteristics. What I like is this gluten free flour mix: a very small consumption of flour (I put it in 2 times less than before I use wheat flour), very well behaved dough – pancakes are flipped well and not stick to the pan, and of course – pancakes made from this type of gluten free flour are very tasty! So, let’s start.

Ingredients

4 eggs,

4 tablespoons of sugar,

4 cups milk (I use soy to make lactose free variant),

2 cups of gluten free flour for pancakes – Schar Mehl Farine,

sunflower oil,

a pinch of salt,

1/2 tsp. of soda,

a slice of lemon.

Mix eggs with salt and sugar in blender. Add the milk and sunflower oil, mix again. Add the flour, whisk well to avoid lumps. Dial soda in a spoon and squeeze lemon on it, pour it all into the batter and stir gently. In the end, the dough should have the consistency of a liquid sour cream. If it is too thick – add water or milk and if too runny, add more flour.

Once the dough is ready, heat the frying pan (I fried at two to make it faster). Pour a little sunflower oil. Depending on the size of the pan pour on it half a ladle with the batter and evenly distribute it around the pan by tilting it in different directions.

If you have no experience just keep practicing and gradually the pancakes will start to get neater and thinner. Experiment with the amount of flour – with less amount you can get thinner pancakes, but you should be careful to turn out them without tearing. With a bit more flour – pancakes will be thicker and easier to flip them, but it is more difficult to distribute the dough on the pan. Pick your version by gradually adding flour or liquid and trying.

When the pancake is fried enough on one side, gently pry it with a plastic or wooden spatula from the bottom of the pan and flip. When second side is sufficiently browned, remove the pancake with a spatula from the frying pan and pour a new portion of the dough.

I add sunflower oil to the pan before each pancake, but some like to do it less frequently. So the pancakes will be slightly less greasy, but they will be harder to separate from pans.

Ready pancakes can be eaten as a separate dish or you can wrap some filling in them or dip in homemade jam. Bon appetit!