DessertAI

Mlyntsi

Name: Mlyntsi
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Ukrainian
Ingredients: 200 g Plain flour; 500 ml Whole milk; 3 piece Eggs; 25 g Caster sugar; 3 g Fine sea salt; 30 g Unsalted butter; 15 ml Sunflower oil; 150 g Sour cream, to serve

Thin Ukrainian pancakes, lacy at the edges and thin enough to see light through. Rolled, folded or stacked, with sour cream or whatever the season offers.

Prep: 10 min
Cook: 25 min
Difficulty: Easy

About this dish

Mlyntsi are the everyday cousin of the ceremonial pancake: no yeast, no waiting, nothing that cannot be assembled from what a kitchen already holds. They are eaten plain, rolled around curd or meat, or stacked into a cake with cream between the layers. What makes them Ukrainian rather than French is mostly the pan — a well-seasoned one, kept for this and little else, and never washed with soap if anyone older is watching.

Vegetarian
Not vegan because of Whole milk, Eggs, Unsalted butter, Sour cream, to serve
Contains gluten because of Plain flour
Contains dairy because of Whole milk, Unsalted butter, Sour cream, to serve

Ingredients

4servings

200gPlain flour
500mlWhole milk
3piecesEggs
25gCaster sugar
3gFine sea salt
30gUnsalted butter
15mlSunflower oil
150gSour cream, to serve

Instructions

Whisk the eggs with the sugar and salt, then whisk in the milk.
5 min
Tip: Wet ingredients first, always. Flour tipped into liquid disperses; liquid poured onto flour makes lumps you then spend five minutes chasing.
Sift in the flour and whisk until smooth. The batter should be thinner than cream — closer to whole milk.
3 min
Tip: If it coats the whisk it is too thick, and thick batter makes thick pancakes. Loosen it with a splash more milk without hesitation.
Rest the batter for 30 minutes at room temperature.
30 min
Tip: Not optional, and not about temperature: resting lets the flour absorb the liquid and the gluten relax. Unrested batter tears in the pan and tastes faintly of raw flour.
Melt the butter into the batter, wipe a hot pan with oil, and cook each pancake for about a minute on the first side and thirty seconds on the second.
20 min
Tip: Butter in the batter rather than in the pan: it browns the pancake evenly from within instead of burning in patches under it.
Stack as they come off the heat and serve with the sour cream.
2 min
Tip: Stacking traps steam, which keeps them supple. Spread on a rack to cool and they go leathery within minutes.