5 facts about blinis – Blini Weeks 2025
You can find all our restaurant's blini menus for 2025 here: https://raflaamo.fi/en/blinis
1. What is a blini?
Blinis are made from a yeast dough that has fermented overnight, mixed with buckwheat and wheat flour in each chef's preferred ratio. Before frying, milk, egg yolks, and egg white foam are added to the dough.
Blinis are fried in plenty of butter on a hot cast-iron pan and served immediately. Melted butter is poured on top. These buckwheat delicacies are enjoyed with sour cream and onions, along with various toppings, most often roe, pickles, and mushroom salad.
2. Blinis have a long tradition
Blini Weeks are a wonderful part of the Finnish food culture's indulgence season. Blinis arrived in Finland with the Slavic nobility, but their roots go back to pre-Christian times. Back then, blinis, or buckwheat pancakes, were used to celebrate the increasing daylight in the annual cycle.
3. Sun-shaped blinis
The roots of blinis trace back to pagan times when golden-yellow and round blinis were enjoyed to celebrate the lengthening days as the light increased. The celebration was called Maslenitsa. The Maslenitsa tradition has since been preserved in Slavic countries as part of the delicious lead-up to the great fast before Easter.
In addition to food and drink, Maslenitsa involves spending time outdoors and meeting people. Maslenitsa is reminiscent of the carnival tradition in Catholic countries – and our Shrovetide.
4. Food of princes
Sophisticated blini meals arrived in Finland and Scandinavia with princes already at the end of the 19th century. In Slavic countries, blinis and caviar were luxurious foods for the nobility, enjoyed alongside clinking champagne glasses. Since then, blinis have become everyday food offered even in fast-food restaurants in Slavic countries, and blinis have turned into thin pancakes instead of thick ones.
In Finland, however, thick buckwheat pancakes with roe, sour cream, and onions are still enjoyed. And by the way, buckwheat is Finland's oldest cereal crop.
5. One of the favorite delicacies of the Finnish food year
Blini Weeks have become an important part of the Finnish food year's cycle, an eagerly awaited food season in early winter. Blinis have become a part of our food culture just like pizzas and sushi. Tourists coming to Finland also seek out these pancakes, as they are rarely found elsewhere in the world. The blini season in restaurants starts after Epiphany and continues until the end of March.
Blini Weeks 2025 in our restaurants
In our restaurants, blinis are made from domestic flour, eggs, and milk and served with delicious toppings such as whitefish roe and forest mushroom salad. These hearty buckwheat pancakes are excellent comfort food in the middle of winter and a great way to celebrate everyday life.
