Nalesniki with Cheese and Pineapple
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Remember these? Some people refer to them as Russian crepes or cheese blintzes. If you’ve made a batch of these with cheese and raisins, you are already a pro! Instead of the raisins, I’m using pineapple which is sweet and tart; a perfect complement to the cheese filling.
The pineapple was my Mama’s idea. She brought a batch of these to a church potluck and the nalesniki were a hit! Enjoy these topped with sour cream or your favorite jam.
Watch How To Make Nalesniki:
Ingredients for crepes:
½ cup lukewarm water
1 cup milk
4 large eggs
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted. Plus more to sauté.
1 cup all-purpose flour (you can use 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose)
2 Tbsp sugar
Pinch of Salt
Ingredients for cheese filling:
8 oz package cream cheese, at room temperature
16 oz small curd cottage cheese
4 Tbsp sugar
1 can (15 or 20 oz) coarsely chopped pineapple chunks, well-drained
How to Make Nalesniki with Cheese and Pineapple:
1. Put all of the ingredients for the crepes (in the order that they are listed) in a blender and blend until well combined.
2. Melt a dot of butter in 2 non-stick skillets over medium heat. (2 skillets make the process go faster).
3. Pour about 2 to 3 Tbsp of batter into the skillet. I use a 1-ounce measuring cup.
4. As you are pouring into the skillet, swirl the batter to evenly coat the bottom. If you get any small gaps, you can fill them with a few drops of batter.
5. Once the bottom is lightly golden, flip the crepe using a sharp edged spatula to easily get under the crepe.
Let the other side get lightly golden and plop the crepe out onto a cutting board.
Repeat with all of the batter, using a dot of butter each time if needed. Don’t stack hot crepes on top of each other. Once they are just luke-warm or room temp, they can be stacked.
Don’t panic, the first (and sometimes the second) crepe in the pan never turns out nice!
How to make Cheese & pineapple filling and complete Blinchiki:
1. In a colander, rinse the cottage cheese with cold water and DRAIN WELL. I just let it sit in the colander for 15 minutes and shake it out. Pressing it through a cheese cloth also works well.
2. Mash the cream cheese, cottage cheese and sugar with a potato masher until well combined and creamy. Cottage cheese will still be a little lumpy.
3. Stir in the well-drained bits of pineapple.
4. Using a spatula, spread 2 generous Tbsp of cheese filling on each crepe.
5. Roll the crepe (nalesniki) into a log and cut in half.
6. Refrigerate crepes that aren’t being served. It keeps in the fridge for almost one week.
To Serve:
Melt about 1 Tbsp of butter in a skillet and sauté the rolled cheese crepes on medium heat until golden brown on both sides. They don’t take long to sauté. Be careful not to burn them.
Serve with sour cream or jam on the side.
Nalesniki with Cheese and Pineapple (налесники)
Ingredients
Ingredients for crepes:
- ½ cup lukewarm water
- 1 cup milk
- 4 large eggs
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted. Plus more to sauté.
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
Ingredients for cheese filling:
- 8 oz package cream cheese, at room temperature
- 16 oz small curd cottage cheese
- 4 Tbsp sugar
- 1 can, 15 or 20 oz coarsely chopped pineapple chunks, well-drained
Instructions
- Put ½ cup lukewarm water, 1 cup milk, 4 large eggs, 4 Tbsp melted unsalted butter, 1 cup all-purpose flour , 2 Tbsp sugar, 1 pinch of salt in a blender and blend until well combined.
- Melt a dot of butter in 2 non-stick skillets over medium heat. (2 skillets make the process go faster).
- Pour about 2 to 3 Tbsp of batter into the skillet. I use a 1-ounce measuring cup.
- As you are pouring into the skillet, swirl the batter to evenly coat the bottom. If you get any small gaps, you can fill them with a few drops of batter.
- Once the bottom is lightly golden, flip the crepe using a sharp edged spatula to easily get under the crepe.
- Let the other side get lightly golden and plop the crepe out onto a cutting board.
- Repeat with all of the batter, using a dot of butter each time if needed. Don’t stack hot crepes on top of each other. Once they are just luke-warm or room temp, they can be stacked.
How to make Cheese & pineapple filling and complete Blinchiki:
- In a colander, rinse the cottage cheese with cold water and DRAIN WELL. I just let it sit in the colander for 15 minutes and shake it out.
- Mash the cream cheese, cottage cheese and sugar with a potato masher until well combined and creamy. Cottage cheese will still be a little lumpy.
- Stir in the well-drained bits of pinneaple.
- Using a spatula, spread 2 generous tablespoons of cheese filling on each crepe.
- Roll the crepe (nalesniki) into a log and cut in half.
- Refrigerate crepes that aren’t being served. It keeps in the fridge for almost one week.
To Serve:
- Melt about 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet and sauté the rolled cheese crepes on medium heat until golden brown on both sides. They don’t take long to sauté. Be careful not to burn them.
Serve with sour cream or jam on the side.
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
I always use Natasha’s crepe recipe, put all ingredients in a blender and mix! They come out thin, delicious, and perfect every time! (Natasha your recipes never fail me, thank you so much. Please have an app come out, I’ll be the first to purchase it.)
I’m so happy to hear that, Marina! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Natasha….well if you want a savory crepe…chicken, vegis and crab with a garlic bechamel sauce….so good and not filling…..
Thank you for sharing that with me Catherine!
Natasha, thanks for never letting me down. I have made so many of your recipes and I always make them ‘exactly as written’ except when I need to change it out of necessity. Please tell your mom, I believe this was her recipe modification, that the pineapple nalesniki are my favorite.
I would like to weigh in on the batter blender bubbles and pan vs crepe maker debate. First, instead of using a blender I just use a whisk to stir, not whisk, which does a great job. Second, I considered buying a crepe maker (just what I need; another appliance to clean and store) but found that a good nonstick skillet works beautifully, and I enjoy breezing right through the whole process since I have learned to toss and flip the crepe in the air. It is really quite fun and easy. I feel like applause after every flip would be appropriate.
How fun that you’re tossing the crepe into the air!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review and tips 🙂
Best recipe I’ve found thus far! Thank you Natasha for never failing me lol.
Also this is for all you folks that start making a
recipe ( pour the milk, butter, eggs, etc) and realize you’ve run out of flour. I just now substituted pancake mix, and lemme tell you, it works wonderfully.
That’s so great to know that pancake mix works well. Thanks so much for sharing that! 🙂
Made these lil guys and they were awesome! Used different filling(cool whip+condensed milk, added chopped cherries and tsp of rum) cause I had lots leftover from some puff pastries. Sauteed in butter-delish!
@ruslana–> Its hard using the electric crepe pan cause since the recipe is blended in blender @ high speed, it makes more bubbles so when u pour batter onto a plate then dip the pan, sometimes they fall off into the batter or become super hole-y…I tried but its better using a skillet although it takes a few tries to perfect it.This recipe is well worth the effort. Thank you !!
Thank you!
That’s great to know about this recipe and the crepe maker; maybe if the batter sat for a little while, it would de-bubblify (Yes, I make up words). 😉 I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe. We make these ALL THE TIME! 🙂
try also with Nutella, yammm…
Mmm yum!
what did you put on the top, the white stuff, and how do you make it
Do you mean the cheese filling or the powdered sugar dusted over the top?
Thank you for the recipe, its so sinfully delicious !!! I have tried many recipes for crapes, but so far yours have beat them all. God Bless you in every aspect of your life, thank you for providing so many great recipes.!!!
Wanna know something funny? My mama-in-law told me she’s been using a “secret recipe” that was given to her “by secret” and after she tried this one, well, she now makes this one! 🙂
I make my nalisniki with cottage cheese, cream cheese n sugar. Then cut then in half and put em all in a casserole dish. Seperately i mix heavy whipping cream and condensed milk (dont make too sweet) pour over the nalisniki and then put them in the oven at 350° and bake 40-50 min or until it goldens at the top. I like mine crispy so i keep mine in longer like hour or so. SOOOO DELICIOUS!! 🙂
I didn’t know if these baked well, now I do! Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
what can I use instead of cottage cheese?
Does using the crepe pan change the taste of the crepes, cause we always use that and I was just wondering?
Oh I haven’t used one before. I can’t imagine why it would change the taste. It would probably be faster and easier.
K thanks, I’ve just always done it that way and was just wondering 🙂
if you like the softer nalisniki best is to fit all into a casserole dish, pour half and half into it and bake it. soooo good and creamy.
That sounds nice. Thank you! I will have to try that.
Natasha,
What Brand of knives do you use in your kitchen?
Just wondering on which ones to get for myself.
I wrote about them in the “shop” tab above. Here is a link
I tried this recipe a few weeks ago and these turned out absolutely delicious!!! They’re really yummy hot or cold 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Irina, I’m glad you enjoyed them!
I think if you make them with coconut they would taste so good 🙂 I am not fan of pineapples
Also good with chunks of apricots
I was excited to try these after making them with my hunnie but when i gave it a taste, they were really bitter…i had to throw all of them away. I went by the recipe…im thinking maybe the pineapple had a bad reaction with the cheese. Im not sure what happened.
I’m sorry they didn’t work out. They’ve never turned out bitter on me. Did you taste the cheese and pinneaple to make sure it wasn’t spoiled? I have no idea why else they would taste bitter. Mine have always turned out sweet with a tang from the pinneaple, but never bitter. My mama-in-law told me she made this variation recently and they were gobbled up very quickly. I hate when a recipe doesn’t turn out. 🙁
Wow! I tried these, and they work!! Unlike other crape recipes…. hahaha Thank you!
Where did you buy the curd cottage cheese? Looks yummy!
It’s just normal cottage cheese. You can use small curd or large curd cottage cheese. It’s a little easier to drain the large curd. I bought it at winco.
Love the presentation in the first photo!
I love the pineapple idea. Look forward to trying this recipe. To save on time I will try crushed pineapple or the tidbits.
HEY THEY LOOK FABULOUS… I JUST MADE SOME LAST NIGHT. MY MOM MAKES HER FILLING WITH RECOTTA CHEESE. SHE ADDS 2 EGG YOLKS AND SUGAR AND ITS SOOOOOO TASTY.
Ack! You’re killing me! These sound wonderful.