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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 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?
Nalesniki with Cheese and Raisins (Russian 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
Natasha thank you for a ur recipes ur instructions are so simple and easy to follow first time making these and they turned out great!
That’s awesome! Thanks so much for your great feedback 🙂
Natasha, thank you very much for your helpful and very delicious recipes!
Do you know if in this recipe of Nalesniki, I can substitute milk somehow?
I only have Almond,coconut and condensed milk. Thank you!
I’ve never tried to substitute it to be honest but the almond milk might work well. I’ve seen other recipes online that say you can sub it instead of milk with great results. Now I really want to know! If you test it before me, do let me know 🙂
Can u freeze these?
I have never tried to freeze them, but they do refrigerate very well for up to a week and you just toss them on a buttered skillet to re-heat.
I add olive oil to the crepe batter, it seems to give it more elasticity
I have tried it with olive oil and it does work well and it’s healthier 🙂
I also add oil to the batter instead of melted butter, have actually never tried it with butter in the batter….I also fry them on oil not butter, have never tried frying in butter…what I do is basically season my pans with oil, (so I rub them) and then thats good for the whole recipe-sometimes I have to rub with oil again if the pan has a scratch on it otherwise not 🙂
Are you using a cast iron skillet? I really need to get a good one of those! 🙂
Hi! Sorry for late reply! No I don’t use a cast iron skillet. I actually happened to find 2 crepe pans at Ross or Marshall’s once. They are like a regular non stick pan, but quite large, and are completely flat with a short rim. But my mom has been frying this way forever and works great 🙂
Thanks Alina! 🙂
I’ve been using the two nonstick skillet method for a long time too except mine are two different sizes, oh well 😉
what a good cheese for nalisnikov?
I use cottage cheese and cream cheese but farmers cheese is a classic and is used often for nalesniki. I do have a recipe for farmers cheese posted here
We would have something like this but would put chopped soft boiled eggs and melted butter for the first round and then sour cream and jam for “Dessert”
Two rounds of crepes. Sounds amazing to me! 🙂
I made these today and let me just tell you… They were AMAZING! 😀
Oh yaya!!! I’m so happy you loved the nalesniki 🙂
its polish u know that?
I guess its the same part of the world. That doesn’t surprise me that it’s popular in Poland as well. How do you fill the Polish ones?
Simply Perfect!
I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
do you have a recipe how to make homemade tvorog…your version
Why yes ofcourse! 🙂 Here is the recipe for tvorog cheese.
i was just wondering…i like to try different options of how to make tvorog…they way you make it sounds good…i did the same way plus i add half&half or plain yogurt…
Great recipe, thank you. This summer,while in Ukraine we ate this resturent they served the most amazing crepes. They were filled with sweet poppyseeds and crunchy on the outside, best of all covered in powered sugar and drizzled with dark melted chocolate. I’m not a really big fan of poppyseed, but thoses made day! Any idea how to make the sweet poppyseed filling?
If it’s anything like nearly all of the poppyseed fillings in Russian/Ukrainian cooking, it’s probably like this: https://natashaskitchen.com/2012/12/24/russian-cake-truffles-recipe/ Follow the How to make poppyseeds section 🙂
I was making a lot of nalisniki in my life, different recipes but, these nalisniki are amazing,light,very flexible and they taste great.!!!!!!
Thank you Natasha
Greetings from Montreal
Hi Joanna from Montreal! I’m so glad you enjoyed them. I made the same thing for breakfast this morning! We added white raisins since we were out of craisins and regular raisins! 🙂 So tasty!
I made the nalisniki today, and they were super good. For the filling I put the whole container of cottage cheese without rinsing them and put a block of cream cheese added orange zest and a little bit of orange juice, yummy. My kids put peanut butter and bananas and loved it. Thanks for the recipe and keep them coming.
Wow that sounds so good. I love the idea of adding the orange juice and zest. WOW! 🙂
My sister made these awhile back. I tasted them, they’re super good.( I don’t care for raisins. I usually just top with berry sauce.)Just printed recipe. Planning on making these tomorrow on my day off. I love Natashas Kitchen super helpful.
Thank you! You’re so sweet and I appreciate your kind words 🙂 You can definitely omit the raisins. Sometimes I toss in craisins because I love their sweet/tartness.
just made these and they are sooooooooooo delicious! thank you, Natasha!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the nalesniki. They are my favorite 🙂
I use a little different recipe for my nalisniki I love nalisniki with cherries inside and serve with sweet sour cream (sour cream and sugar mix together on medium speed blender or mixer)
Oh my goodness cherries and sweet sour cream sound amazing!
I need a little advice. So every time I make these my flour doesn’t want to blend into the batter. I have tried everything, changing the order of ingredients around, using other recipes, and in the end I still have to use a sifter to get all the lumps out of my batter. I don’t have a blender so I just use a regular hand mixer. What am I doing wrong?
The blender really helps to incorporate the flour to a smooth consistency. Do you have a hand mixer? That would work just as well.
I love this filling as well…..it just so soft and just melts in your mouth….:)i’ve made nalesniki with russian store bought cottage cheese and no cheese cream- its different….
I totally agree, it does melts in your mouth :).
this is a great recipe….i love to cook and was looking for a good recipe for nalesniki, and here it is…awesome…thanks for sharing 🙂
You’re so welcome! It’s definitely my go-to for making nalesniki 🙂
Sorry, but i have to correct you, it’s nalisniki not nalesniki
I went by whichever one was correct according to google. Nalisniki had 5K search results while nalesniki had 374k results. I wanted to make sure most people found the recipe so I called them Nalesniki but what’s in a name? 🙂 I’ve seen it spelled both ways.