R for Russia ~ Oladi

Event: BM #44, Around the world (A - Z Series)

Choice of Country: The Russian Federation

Capital City: Moscow

Official Language: Russian

I am going to Russia, the largest country on the planet (by area) to try some of their scrumptious pancakes named 'oladi' for today's post. There are basically two kinds of pancakes from a traditional Russian kitchen though there are supposedly hundreds of variations for Russian pancakes depending upon what kind of flour / starch and leavening agents are used and how they are made (plain with toppings or stacked with filling). Above mentioned two pancakes are oladi and blini. Blini are on the thinner side like crepes while oladis are thick, airy pancakes.   
 
This version of oladis are yeast based and take some planning owing to the required double rising of the batter. I think these make a great weekend brunch item than a breakfast in a rush, owing to that rising period. Though the pancakes themselves take little time to make, the rising takes around 1&1/2 to 2 hours. And here is a useful tip from the original recipe if you want to hurry up the rising process. Preheat the oven at the lowest setting and turn off the oven. Place the dough in a heat proof bowl, cover and place it in the oven and it quickens the rising process. These puffy pancakes are soft from inside while the outer surface is delightfully crispy.

Ingredients: (Yield about 15 oladis)
1.5 cup + 3 tbsp. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1 tbsp. flax meal (or any other substitute for 1 egg)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp.oil
Oil to make oladi

Method:
* Mix flour, yeast and milk in a bowl using a wooden spoon.

* Cover the dough bowl and leave it to rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume.
* Combine flax meal and 3 tbsp. warm water in a small bowl and leave it aside for five minutes.
* Add this flax meal mixture, sugar, salt and oil to the fermented batter and mix well to combine.  At this point berries, finely chopped apples, nuts or chocolate chips can also be added to the batter if desired.

 * Cover it and leave it again in a warm place to rise until it doubles.

The dough would be very sticky and hard to drop from the spoon onto the skillet. To avoid this situation, keep a small bowl of water handy and dip the spoon (you are going to use to spoon the batter) each time in the water before using it to scoop out the dough.
* Heat a non-stick skillet on medium flame and add about 2 tsp of oil. Now dunk the spoon in the water, remove and scoop out the dough and pour on the skillet with out deflating it as much as possible. The dough effortlessly slides off the spoon. Drop more spoonfuls of batter taking care to dunk the spoon in water every time before using it.

* Cook on low flame until they are cooked through and they turn golden brown both sides. If they are cooked on high flame, they get brown faster without getting cooked inside.

* Repeat the steps with the remaining batter. Ravish these scrumptious oladi warm with jam, sweetened sour cream or berries. I also served some with bananas and maple-cane syrup.





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