Blini

A blini (plural blinis or blini, rarely bliny; Russian: блины pl.), traditionally also called a blin is a Russian and more broadly Eastern European pancake made from various kinds of flour or buckwheat, wheat, etc. They may be served with smetana, tvorog, caviar and other garnishes, or simply smeared with butter. Blini are among the most popular and most-eaten dishes in Russia.

In the West, blini traditionally refers to small savory pancakes made with leavened batter. In modern Russian, the term most often refers to pan-sized leavened thin pancakes, although smaller leavened pancakes are also called blini and were much more common historically.

Some English dictionaries record usage of the forms blin as singular and blini or bliny as plural, which corresponds to the original Russian forms, but other dictionaries consider this usage so rare in English that they do not mention blin at all and only record the widespread modern regular usage of blini for the singular and blinis for the plural. Some cookbooks and restaurants use blin and blintchick as in Russian to refer to crêpes.

Blintzes, called blinchiki (little blinis) in Russian are an offshoot of blini. They are thin pancakes usually made of wheat flour, folded to form a casing for various kinds of filing, typically cheese, fruit, or (in Russian cuisine) pre-fried minced meat, and then sautéed or baked.