Anchor cooking challenge (part 1)

I often wonder why there are so few brand loyalty rewards around. When we visit my in-laws in Italy, I wistfully look at my mother-in-law carefully cutting the little tokens from milk cartons and dairy products, which she collects and exchanges for beautiful kitchen items. I wish we had more schemes like this in the UK.

I think Anchor has read my mind. They have introduced a new Anchor Rewards Club (link removed as non-existent). You can collect points to exchange for must-have kitchenware items (cake tins, butter dishes, tea towels) and dining out discount vouchers. You collect points by entering codes found on special packs of Anchor Butter, Anchor Spreadable and Anchor Lighter Spreadable.


My boys love pancakes, and I make them at the weekend. While my husband prefers a bigger size pancake with sweet fillings & toppings, my sons prefer the Russian style pancakes known as blini (I deliberately omit the S from the end of the word, as Blini in Russian means pancakes (in plural). I know many people use the word "blinis" but for the Russian ear it sounds definitely odd, it would be like adding an extra S to scissors).

For the basic blini recipe you will need

4 heaped tbsp of standard self-raising flour
2 medium eggs
1 tsp of granulated sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
80 ml milk
2 tbsp of soured cream or plain yogurt (optional)
butter for oiling the pan and for the blini themselves

There will be enough batter to make 12 blini and one big pancake.

Add all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and use a blender until you have a smooth batter. Use a pancake pan, you need to add some butter to it first. Once very hot, using a ladle, add the batter to the pan, or use a tablespoon if you like, about 2 tbsp per one pancake. You can make them big-sized too. Spread a bit of butter on top of the hot blini as you make them.

They are best eaten hot. Serve them with a dollop of soured cream and a sprinkle of sugar for the authentic Russian flavours, or with a generous drizzle of honey.
If you prefer savoury blini, then omit the sugar from the batter, and once cooked, serve them with a thin slice of the smoked salmon, a dollop of the soured cream and some chopped dill, totally amazing. Or if you feel like splashing money about, top up your blini with a spoonful of caviar.

That's how I serve pancakes to my husband who has a sweet tooth: he likes the pancakes with the chopped banana (half a banana per pancake) and lots of Anchor Real Dairy cream.

You might have noticed a pretty Anchor butter dish and a wooden spoon in my photos. You can get hold of the same lovely kitchen item, once you collect enough Anchor points. I was among the first to receive these items from Anchor and have already started collecting points for a cake tin.

Have you started collecting Anchor points? Well, what are you waiting for?

P.S. I received two Anchor collectable items for the purposes of writing this post, all opinions are mine.