Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi)
August 28th, 2010 in Main Dishes, No-meat by Julia Volhina
Total cooking time: 50min
There is more than one recipe for pancakes on this website, if you are looking for some other recipe, try here: all pancake recipes.

Oladi, or thick pancakes prepared from kefir based batter, is traditional russian breakfast food. Batter is easy to assemble and whole dish doesn’t take much time to cook.
Kefir gives a distinguishing taste to oladi, but it probably can be replaced with buttermilk in case you are having troubles finding kefir.
Oladi can be served plain or with some kind of a topping: jam, syrop or honey, as well as fresh fruits. I love oladi with sour cream.
Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 1 cup of plain unsweetened kefir
- 1 tbsp of sugar
- 1.5 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 tsp of baking soda
- Sunflower oil
How to prepare, step-by-step:
-
Prepare ingredients: if you have troubles finding kefir (I usually take unsweetened kefir from Lifeway, getting it from Whole Foods) you can substitute it with unsweetened buttermilk:
Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi) Recipe: Step 1 -
Crack egg to deep bowl, add sugar and beat them until about tripled in volume, I advise using mixer to get results faster:
Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi) Recipe: Step 2 -
Carefully mix in kefir:
Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi) Recipe: Step 3 -
Sift and fold in all purpose flour:
Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi) Recipe: Step 4 -
Add baking soda:
Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi) Recipe: Step 5 -
Batter should be thin enough so you can ladle it with a spoon and pour, but not too thick so pancakes don’t get too thin:
Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi) Recipe: Step 6 -
Warm up skillet with about 2 tablespoons of oil over moderate heat; ladle a bit of batter with a tablespoon and pour it to the skillet; repeat for several more pancakes:
Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi) Recipe: Step 7 -
Let pancakes to fry on one side until light brown color then flip them over using spatula and fry from second side until ready:
Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi) Recipe: Step 8 -
Repeat with the rest of batter. Serve oladi warm with your choice of topping: any kind of jam or syrop will work good as well as honey; I like oladi with sour cream:
Russian Kefir Pancakes (Oladi)
Love how they turned out – http://www.munchkintime.com/wake-up-to-a-better-breakfast-with-a-quick-kefir-pancakes/
Turned out very good, followed the recipe but added some salt to it.
Any jam is perfect with it for breakfast. Thank you for recipe!
Thanks!
Nobody was drinking the Kefir – so I made this recipe and dipped bite-sized-pieces of cooked chicken breast in it, and fried them in a good amount of oil until golden. Was the perfect batter!!! Added salt over the top which made it taste divine! Son dipped his in ranch dressing, Hubby poured Buffalo Hot Sauce on his. Both guys were happy. Thanks Julia.
Interesting idea, thanks for sharing 🙂
Loved these!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were delish, I added raisins for more taste into the batter for better taste. Made them for breakfast and they were all gone, and later around 5pm, my husband asked me to make them again cause they were good. Thank you so much for this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, raisins or apples are great addition to these ones.
Thanks for trying the recipe, I am glad you liked it 🙂
I absolutely loved these pancakes, as did my whole family, they were so popular I am sure my family will ask for them again and again. I often have too much excess kefir in the fridge and this is a gorgeous way of using it . I am posting this response because I love cooking and eating and found this recipe to be lovely and recommend it .
Thank you for trying it out 🙂