Russian Blini and Dandelion Syrup

So the quarantine has led to somewhat crazy actions on my part, one of those being making my own dandelion syrup, inspired from Beyond the North Wind by Darra Goldstein. This cookbook has only a handful of recipes I'm confident enough to try, two of them being the title of this post. I decided on a whim to go to the nearest country cemetery to pick my dandelions since they should have the least amount of carbon grossness on them and cemeteries are usually super manicured. I struck gold ;) and picked my 350 blossoms in 12 minutes. Fast forward to the end of the process and Jacob has broken out in hives from me permeating the air with one of his allergens. Needless to say, next time I'm gonna have to do this over an open flame outside of the house.
The process was very simple, the longest part was washing the blossoms. And I have been wanting to try blini for the longest time and so I was finally able to do that this weekend. It takes 1.5 hours of proofing so it's definitely a brunch option. I loved them, Jacob wasn't the hugest fan of the buckwheat flavor, but enjoyed the lightness of them. It was so cool to see all the air bubbles created from the yeast. I also made a strawberry rhubarb sauce with freshly whipped cream to eat with them since I knew Jacob couldn't eat the dandelion syrup.

Some things for next time I make these:

• For the syrup, I subbed the turbinado sugar for one half white and one half brown sugar. 
• I added more sugar than four cups because after the blossoms cooked, I had more than 4 cups of juice leftover. 
• The final product has the consistency of maple syrup but tasted like honey. 
• For the blini, I couldn't find buckwheat flour from groats like what was called for, but that probably is a good thing since it imparts a more strong flavor of buckwheat. For a true authentic version, I should have gotten whole buckwheat and ground them myself in a coffee grinder. 
• I heated my milk on the stove to attain a lukewarm temperature.
• I placed the batter inside of the oven at around 100 degrees for the second half of the proof since our house is too cold. 
• I only started out with one pan (non-stick, not cast iron), but switched to two halfway through the process. Like crepes, for a sooner breakfast, it's best to have two pans going and also like crepes, the batter is pretty loose and requires pan swirling. 
• I kept them warm at 200 degrees in the toaster oven while I made them.
• We tried them at first, rolled like crepes, but I actually liked them better in a stack like she suggested. 
• After I made these, I was talking to mom about them and she told me Tara makes something like these and she puts sugar and cinnamon along with melted butter in between each layer which sounds scrumptious. 

Breakfast

Dandelion Syrup

Time: 3.5 hours (not including the harvesting)

Makes: 4.5 cups ( I think I accidentally put in an extra cup of water though)

Ingredients:

     350 dandelion blossoms

     6 cups cold water

     4 cups turbinado sugar

     Juice of 1 large lemon (or more, to taste)

Steps:

1. Rinse the dandelion blossoms in cold water. Turn them out onto paper towels and let drain for a minute to encourage any bugs to escape. Pick through the blossoms to make sure there are no blades of grass among them. 
2. Place the blossoms in a large saucepan with the water. Cook at a slow boil, covered, over low heat for 1 hour. 
3. Strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean saucepan, pressing down on the blossoms to extract all of the juice. You will have 4 cups of juice. 
4. Stir in the sugar and bring liquid to a boil, continuing to stir until the sugar dissolves. 
5. Cook uncovered, over low heat for 1 hour and 15 minutes, add the lemon juice and cook for 15 minutes more, until the syrup is viscous and a drop on a sauce holds its shape. 
6. Pour into sterilized jars and seal. Store in the refrigerator. It will keep almost indefinitely. 

Blini

Time: 2.5 hours (including 1.5 hours of rising)

Makes: 24 blini

Ingredients:

     1 package active dry yeast (2.25 teaspoons)

     1 teaspoon sugar

     2.75 cups lukewarm whole milk

     4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

     1 cup buckwheat flour

     1 cup all-purpose flour

     Generous 1/2 teaspoon salt

     3 eggs, separated

     Vegetable oil, for the pan

      Melted butter

Steps:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/4 cup of warm milk and stir until the yeast dissolves and begins to foam. Stir in the remaining milk, the butter, both flours, salt, and egg  yolks. 
2. Whisk well by hand until no lumps remain, or beat with an electric mixture for a minute or two. Cover the bowl and leave the mixture to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. 
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry and fold them into the batter. Let the batter rest for 30 more minutes. 
4. Heat an 8-inch cast-iron crepe pan over medium heat and brush the surface with vegetable oil. When the pan is hot, test the consistency of the batter by pouring a little out onto the pan - it should pour easily enough to swirl over the surface of the pan. (If it's too thick, gently fold in a little more warm milk.)
5. Pour 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter onto the pan. Pick up the pan and swirl it so that the batter forms a thing, even round, 5 to 6 inches in diameter. Cook over medium heat until bubbles appear on the surface, about one minute. Flip the pancake with a spatula and cook on the other side just until faintly colored, another 30 seconds or so. Turn the pancake out onto a plate and repeat with the remaining batter, adding more oil to the pan as needed.
6. Blini are best served hot from the pan and ideally each person is served a stack of three.  If they must be kept for later, pile them in a deep dish, brushing each one with butter, and cover the top of the dish with a linen towel. You could also cover the dish with aluminum foil and keep the blini warm in a 200 degree oven. 

EAT