30 May 2010

Chocolate Blinis


For May's Chocolate With Francois challenge, Linda at Diva Weigh selected Chocolate Blinis. Traditionally, blinis are made with yeast and are served with caviar and sour cream, but in this case, they are leavened with whipped egg whites, and are definitely more sweet than savoury. Essentially, these are light, fluffy little pancakes, that are incredibly chocolatey.

The batter came together quite easily; melted chocolate and butter is stirred into an egg and sugar mixture, dry ingredients and ground hazelnuts are folded in, followed by whipped eggs whites. A short rest in the fridge and the blinis are ready to be cooked!

Cooking the blinis proved to be a bit more challenging than expected though. Even with the pan over the lowest flame, they had a tendency to burn, or if they weren't burnt, they were still too raw to flip. That picture up top?  Ya, that's the only blini that turned out presentable... that's why ther's only one on the plate.  After almost a dozen blinis turned out mishapened and burnt, I changed gears and started heating up the waffle baker. The waffle blinis turned out much much better. They were crisp and light and perfectly browned.

Since these were going to be a dessert, I whipped up a bit of cream to serve on top. Then inspiration called and I remembered the new flavour of jam that I had recently spied at the grocery store. Bonne Maman's Mandarin Jam is a lovely marmalade, yet it's not overly bitter like so many marmalades can be. A few tablespoons of this jam whipped into cream, turned out to be a stellar topping for these very chocolatey waffles.






The complete recipe can be found on Linda's blog DivaWeigh.

Happy Baking!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

10 comments:

Chele said...

What a great idea! They look fab.

Julie said...

I turned my fire up a little and was able to get them cooked and turned. I love the idea of these as waffles.

Leslie said...

What a great idea to turn them into waffles! Your mandarin whipped cream sounds delectable.

Linda said...

What a good way to make these! I'll have to try that next time. Thanks for playing along this month!

Unknown said...

waffles sound like a great idea!

Seattle Pastry Girl said...

Oh perfect solution..now I just wish I had a waffle maker !
Sandy

Leave-Room-for-Dessert said...

I didn't want to go and spend hundreds of dollars on a waffle baker, not being sure if I would even use one that often. I picked up a really really inexpensive one ($10), and have used it quite a bit (makes wicked french toast waffles - check my post on that). Not a bad idea for a machine that's really a only good one for one thing... Turning stuff into waffles.

astheroshe said...

WOW your Blinis and Daring baker tower all came out great!!! We have a daring challenge from Francois's book this month!

Peanut Butter and Jealous! said...

Clever! Lesser bakers might have given up and just eaten the batter! :) I wonder if a crepe pan would have worked?

Jasmine and Manuel said...

Hey, Canadian girl, how are you?
It's Jasmine and Manuel here, your new friends from Italy who would gladly exchange country with you :)
We just popped by to say that we really enjoyed the conversation we had with you and that we'll follow your blog from now on: you're such a nice person! and your blog is just lovely!!
Take care and don't forget to let us know if you should ever come to Italy: we'll take you out 4 shopping!!
Cheers
Jasmine and Manuel