Here is a wonderful recipe for a gluten-free diet: thin rice flour crepes, known in Slavic cuisine as blinchiki or nalistniki (paper-thin crepes meant for stuffing). Baking these lacy, delicate, and delicious crepes is surprisingly simple. Rice flour batter behaves a bit differently than traditional wheat batter: it is much more fluid, giving the cooked crepes a noble matte finish and a snow-white color before browning. As they cook, the kitchen fills with a subtle, sweet aroma, and the edges turn lacy and crisp, much like the finest porcelain. These delicate crepes are famous for pairing effortlessly with any sweet or savory filling while remaining light and easy to digest. Otherwise, the technique is very similar to the classic method, and the result exceeds all expectations. Pure deliciousness!
Lacy and golden rice flour crepes turn out incredibly tender and make a wonderful breakfast.
Ingredients
- 400 g (14 oz) prostokvasha (soured milk), kefir, or cultured buttermilk
- 2 chicken eggs
- 25 g (2 tbsp) neutral vegetable oil
- 150 g (1 cup) rice flour
- 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- sugar to taste
- vegetable oil, for greasing the pan
Savory Filling for Rice Crepes
- 1 cup short-grain rice
- 4 chicken eggs
- 1 onion
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions (scallions)
- 100 g (3.5 oz) crab sticks (imitation crab / surimi)
- butter, for frying
How to Make Rice Flour Crepes
Take the batter ingredients out of the refrigerator in advance so the eggs and prostokvasha (traditional soured milk, similar to cultured buttermilk) come to room temperature. Pour the prostokvasha or kefir (fermented milk drink) into a deep bowl and crack in two chicken eggs. Add the salt and a pinch of granulated sugar to taste.
Start by combining room-temperature ingredients: soured milk, eggs, salt, and sugar.
Whisk the eggs and prostokvasha together. Pour in refined, neutral-flavored vegetable oil and thoroughly combine the liquid ingredients. Any neutral oil will work well here—corn, sunflower, light olive, or canola oil.
Thoroughly whisk the liquid base while adding vegetable oil to give the future crepes elasticity.
Sprinkle in the baking soda and whisk the liquid base again. The baking soda will neutralize the acidity of the kefir or prostokvasha, ensuring the finished crepes don’t taste sour. Moreover, the soda enhances that signature lacy, porous texture and deepens the golden color, making the crepes look delicate and beautiful.
Baking soda reacts with the acidic soured milk, creating bubbles for a lacy crepe texture.
Combine the baking powder with the rice flour. Gradually incorporate the dry mixture into the wet ingredients in small batches. Be careful not to confuse rice flour with rice starch, as they are completely different products. Let the finished batter rest at room temperature for 15–20 minutes.
Add the rice flour in batches. It is important to let the finished batter rest for 15–20 minutes before cooking.
Heat a heavy-bottomed 20–22 cm (8–8.5 inch) skillet over high heat until very hot. Using a silicone brush or a pastry brush, coat the hot pan with a thin layer of cooking oil. Pour about 3 tablespoons of batter—roughly 45–50 g (1.5–1.7 oz) per crepe—onto the greased skillet. By the way, my grandmother used to oil her pan using a bundle of goose feathers or half a raw potato.
Pour a portion of batter onto the hot skillet and quickly swirl it into a thin layer.
Cook over high heat. Once the top sets and the underside turns a lovely golden brown, carefully flip the crepe and cook the other side until golden.
Cook over high heat until a lovely golden color develops on both sides.
Stack the finished crepes one on top of another. You can enjoy them immediately while piping hot. However, if you plan to stuff them, let the rice crepes rest in a stack first. Right off the skillet, they are quite crisp and brittle, and they will tear if you try to roll them immediately. After sitting in a warm stack for about an hour, the crepes will soften and become wonderfully pliable.
Let the crepes rest in a stack for a bit so they become pliable and won't tear when stuffed.
Here is the most delicious savory filling for rice crepes: Boil 1 cup of short-grain rice until tender, and hard-boil 4 chicken eggs. Finely chop an onion, sauté it in butter until soft, and mix it with half a cup of chopped scallions. Combine the cooked rice, sautéed onions, scallions, and chopped boiled eggs, then fold in 100 g (3.5 oz) of coarsely grated crab sticks (surimi). Mix the filling thoroughly, spoon a portion into the center of each rice crepe, and fold it up like an envelope.
To make your thin rice flour crepes look as appetizing as possible, serve them with smetana (rich Slavic sour cream), fresh berries, or floral honey. If you prefer savory options, try the rice, egg, and crab stick filling included in the recipe—it complements the neutral flavor of the rice batter beautifully. For an impressive holiday presentation, fold the crepes into neat triangles or gather them into little beggar's purses tied with a single green onion blade. Keep in mind that rice flour naturally settles to the bottom of the bowl, so be sure to stir the batter from the bottom up with your ladle before scooping each portion. If you have leftovers the next day, store them in the refrigerator tightly covered with an inverted plate or plastic wrap so their delicate edges don't dry out. Before serving, simply warm them gently in a skillet with a little butter or in the microwave—they will become soft, pliable, and fragrant all over again, keeping their unique texture.
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