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Nalisniki (налесники), cheese blintzes, cheese crepes, blinchiki. This Russian dish has many names, but whatever it’s called, it has remained one of the most popular dishes with Vadim and I for breakfast, lunch or a late night snack.
There are many ways to make them and a variety of fillings; everything from cheese to fruit and even meat! Make a batch of these and have gourmet breakfasts! They seem intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, they are fast and easy to make.
Ingredients for Cheese 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
1/4 cup sugar
¾ cup raisins
Powdered sugar for serving (optional)
Watch How To Make Crepes:
How to Make Crepes:
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). Pour about 2 to 3 Tablespoons 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 more batter.
3. Once the bottom is golden, flip the crepe using a sharp edged spatula to easily get under the crepe. Let the other side get golden and plop the crepe out onto a cutting board.
Repeat with all of the batter, using a dot of butter each time. Don’t stack hot crepes on top of each other. Once they are just warm or room temp, they can be stacked.
Don’t panic, the first crepe in the pan never turns out nice!
How to make Cheese filling and complete Cheese Crepes:
1. In a colander, rinse the cottage cheese with cold water and DRAIN WELL. A cheese cloth also works well. 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.
2. Using a spatula, spread 2 generous Tablespoons of cheese filling on each crepe and sprinkle with about 15 raisins.
3. Roll the crepe 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 Cheese Crepes:
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.
Dust with powered sugar (optional) and serve with sour cream or jam on the side. YUUUMMMM!
Do you put anything unusual in your Nalisniki/ Blinchiki?
Cheese Crepes
Ingredients
For the Batter:
- 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 salt
For the Filling:
- 8 oz package cream cheese, at room temperature
- 16 oz small curd cottage cheese
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup raisins
- Powdered sugar for serving, optional
Instructions
How to Make the Crepes:
- Put all of the ingredients for the crepes (in the order that they are listed) 1/2 cup warm water, 1 cup milk, 4 large eggs, 4 Tbsp melted butter, 1 cup flour, 2 Tbsp sugar and a pinch of salt in a blender and blend until well combined.
- Melt a dot of butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat (2 skillets make the process go faster).
- 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 more batter. Depending on the size of your skillet; add about 2-3 tbsp of batter. I use a small ladle.
- Once the bottom is lightly golden (about a minute or less) 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 remaining batter; you may not need to dot with butter after the first time if your skillet is a good one (and remember there is butter in the batter). Don’t stack hot crepes on top of each other. Once they are just warm or room temp, they can be stacked. Don’t panic, my first crepe never turns out nice so I wolf it down to conceal the evidence!
How to make cheese filling and complete nalesniki:
- In a colander, rinse the cottage cheese with cold water and drain well. 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.
- Using a spatula, spread 2 generous Tablespoons of cheese filling on each crepe and sprinkle with about 10-15 raisins.
- Roll the crepe 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.
- Dust with powered sugar (optional) and serve with sour cream or jam on the side.
Nutrition Per Serving
Great Recipe 🙂 I make them with electrical Crepe Maker. So much easier then a regular pan.
Hmmm. That sounds like a nice tool. What kind do you have and where did you get it?
My mother in law makes hers with chicken or turkey and some cheese/onion with sour cream on the side. So after thanksgiving, she usually makes a ton of these and sloyki because there is a lot of leftover roasted meat to mince.
Meat with cheese and onion sounds really good! The meat filled nalesniki are on my to-do list. What are sloyki?
Love this recipe! My mom makes them all the time but she has no concrete recipe (as many other Russian moms lol 😉 so I’m gonna try your for a breakfast get together with friends tomorrow.
P.S. How did you start your website? Did you have technical help? Did you start with blogging? I want to start a DIY blog/website because I love doing those types of things but have no idea where to start… You can e-mail me if you have some suggestions
tried this recipe a few weeks ago and these turned out absolutely delicious!!! They’re really yummy hot or cold Thanks for sharing
tried this recipe a few days ago and these turned out absolutely delicious!!! They’re really yummy hot or cold Thanks for sharing my honey love them thanks agen…
Hi Natasha – I am loving your blog! My hubby’s Ukrainian and I’ve always wanted to dive into that side of the family’s recipes for my kids 🙂 … I’m also glad to have found a fellow believer – there are few things better than mixing food and fellowship!
I have a question – have you ever made a whole batch of the crepes, and then frozen them for future use? Do you think that would work well? I’ve got three little ones in the house, and I’m thinking that it would be easier to have regularly if the crepes were made ahead of time!
Hi Sarah from Canada :). Welcome to the site! I couldn’t agree with you more! I haven’t tried freezing the crepes. I do know they keep well in the fridge for even 4 or 5 days and we never get tired of eating them – we reheat them sauteed in some butter – YUMM! Let me know how it works out if you do try to freeze them.
I Love Your Sit.
You Have A Beautiful Family(:
This Gonna Help Me So much.(since i’m getting married and gonna cook for my husband(:.. )
God Bless You…
Thank you! I hope you and your fiance enjoy the recipes 🙂
Ah, all three kids are down napping (all under age 3) so I’m making these crepes. In Hungary, we mostly put jam or the cheese filling with raisins in our palacsinta/crepes. However, when we lived in Germany in the early 80’s, we discovered Nutella, and that it spreads very nicely on still warm crepes/palacsinta and that has been my family’s favorite filling ever since.
My mom also makes a crepe and chocolate pudding casserole (basically crepes rolled up and laid in rows in a 13×9 pan and then covered with chocolate pudding.)
One time when I went back to Hungary to visit, my dad’s mom served me meat and cheese stuffed crepes that were breaded and deep-fried and then poured over with a tart mayonnaise sauce.
But I’m drooling now so to the kitchen I go!
Thanks for such a great site!
You’re welcome. Thank you for the great filling ideas. The meat and cheese stuffed crepes, breaded and deep fried… how can you go wrong with that?? That sounds really good!
My husband is Hungarian, too, and we love palacsinta/crepes. Favorite fillings are poppyseed, apricot jam, and the cheese mixture. Dessert special is filled with chocolate or Nutella. Gundel’s is a famous restaurant in Budapest, and well-known for its palacsinta. My husband’s name is Csaba. Thanks for sharing crepe recipe.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Alexa!
I made these today, and I’m so proud 😉 But I did something different that my mom does, for the cream/cottage cheese mixture, i added a splash of vanilla extract and one egg yolk. then i baked them in the oven till they turned a deep shade of yellow…. yum… so good with strawberry preserves 😉
Baking them is awesome if you are feeding a large crowd. The vanilla and egg yolk sound nice for baking. I don’t add it if I’m not planning on baking them because I don’t have to worry about the raw ingredient. I’ve tried these with strawberry preserves mixed with sour cream and it is very good!
How long do you bake them for and at what temp? I have a large group that I am making them for, so thought that would be easier. Thanks!
Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes (if they are cold from the fridge, do 30 minutes). Generously brush all sides and bottom of a pyrex dish with unsalted butter. Lay down your first layer of nalesniki and brush generously with melted unsalted butter, brush the top layer with butter. Cover with foil and bake. You should have no more than 2 layers when its done. I still feel the best way is to saute them on a skillet with butter – they cook very fast and turn out perfect 🙂
My family likes crepes, too. Recently I discovered new filling – cheesecake filling! No hassle with cottage and cream cheeses… and heavenly taste.
Little expensive, but worth it.
Oooo, I really like cheesecake!! Yumm! Do you make the filling for a cheesecake and just put it in or do you bake the cheesecake filling first?
No, I buy cheesecake filling at the grocery store. Then just spread it over crepes and bake them in electric skillet with whipped cream on a top for 15 minutes.
That sounds really good and easy! 🙂 Thank you.
TY FOR A GREAT IDEA FOR TWOROG SUBSTITUTION
we love crepes with strawberry, banana and honey or
with spinach, mushrooms cheese and deli meat or
with anything else or by itself 🙂
sometimes I make them when I forgot to buy bread
we like them a little bit softer and fluffier
so, I use less eggs (well, I don’t name them crepes…)
250 ml milk
1 egg
salt & sugar to taste
beat with mixer
+ flour to crepe like consistency
shoul be bubbly
then stir in 2-3 T oil
to make them I usually use frozen stick of butter for seasoning a pan. Works very well.
Makes 10-12 blinchikov, good for 2 people.
Crapes with cheese could be frozen. It’s a great breakfast idea for these busy holiday mornings with home full of relatives. I guess, I need to start making them … 🙂
I make them with 100% whole wheat and the results are pleasing. I fold them into a pocket and eat them with strawberries-and-cream, or applesauce with syrup. Very tasty! I also use a non-stick pan and do not have to add the butter to the pan each time, although the butter does give it a good taste ))
Good to know, I should try 100% whole wheat; healthier that way! I usually don’t have to keep adding butter with a good non-stick skillet as well. I don’t think these would work on any other kind of skillet. Thanks for the tips, I haven’t tried strawberries & cream or applesauce with syrup. Sounds good!
i accidently came upon your website, wow awesome recipes!! Great job! i love cooking too! cant wait to try some of your recipes!
Hi Anya! Thank you so much! Welcome to the site, I hope you enjoy the recipes.
These look soo good! So glad I found your site!
Thanks for stopping by 🙂 This is one of my favorites!
Omg I just found your website through Recipe Rhapsody! I am so stoked! My grandparents are Ukrainian and Russian and my husband served a two yr mission for our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Kiev, Ukraine and some surrounding areas. I am so excited to start making some of these recipes for myself and my Russian lovin husband!
Thanks Veronica. You are so nice 🙂 This is our favorite breakfast food. Hope you get a chance to try them. Once you get the hang of it, they really arent difficult to make.
These look incredible! And I love the new pic of yourself in the sidebar–you’re so gorgeous!
I put few drops of vanilla extract in the cream cheese..
I put an egg yolk in my cheese, and it makes such a huge difference in taste. I always run out of cheese when I’m filling them cause I can’t stop eating it. I just eat it by the spoonful, and it’s sooo good. I obviously am not very afraid of salmonella. I’ve never heard anyone get sick from it, ever.
I’ll give the egg yolk a try next time.
I also put an egg yolk in the cheese (I dont know why it makes such a change in flavor!), and my cheese recipe is almost exactly like yours. I have never rinsed the cottage cheese however, can you tell me what is the reason for that? Thank you!
I rinse it to make the filling less wet so it doesn’t seep out when I sauté them in butter. Do you bake your nalesniki or saute them?
I usually sautée them, but my filling does run out sometimes, that’s a good tip thank you! I think the egg yolk also might help stiffen the cream a little when its cooking…hm thank you! I will also try your idea of mixing it in the blender, that sounds easy
I love nalisinki (my favorite ones are with cheese) … I haven’t made them in a long long time though… thanx for the suggestions on a great yummy snack 🙂