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We’ve been eating crepes for the past 2 weeks for breakfast and I’m pretty sure I’ll never grow tired of them. These Russian crepes with cheese are our favorite breakfast and I love that they can be prepared ahead of time; making it the ideal breakfast dish for company.
I had fun making this video and my husband decided to keep it “uncensored” and include the embarrassing footage; he thought it would be more entertaining. In the end, I hope you are inspired to go on and become a crepe-making ninja.
Watch How To Make Russian Crepes:
In unrelated, but good news: last night was my final night shift; no more flipping back and forth torture and constantly thinking about my sleep schedule. I start the day shift on Monday. I’m so excited to get my normal energy and spunk back. After all, I need that energy to keep up with things like cooking, blogging… and a gazillion other things. The Mr. and I are celebrating my transition to days with our usual (and favorite) salsa; ceviche.
P.S. I have some variations of crepes posted on the blog including: Crepes with Meat and Mushrooms, and Crepes with Cheese and Pineapple . You can find the original recipe by clicking here.
Nalesniki with Cheese and Raisins (Russian Crepes)
Ingredients
For the Crepes 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
Instructions
How to Make the Crepes:
- Put all of the ingredients for the crepes (in the order that they are listed) in a blender and blend until well combined: 1/2 cup lukwarm water, 1 cup milk, 4 eggs, 4 tbsp melted butter (or olive oil), 1 cup flour.
- 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 Tbsp of cheese filling on each crepe.
- Sprinkle with about 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 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.
- Dust with powered sugar (optional) and serve with sour cream or jam on the side.
Natasha, I’ve trying my hand at blinchiki ever since I got married (5yrs ago). I could never get it right. This recipe is amazing. Works EVERY TIME!!! Thank you so much. My hubby loves blinchiki and now when he gets hom ethis weekend I will make some for him 🙂
Music to my ears 😉 that’s awesome!
Those crapes are soo good! Love the video 🙂
Thank you 🙂
I made this today they are delicious!! Thank you for your recipe:)
Awesome; glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Wow, beyond amazing!
Natasha you are bomb! You should do more videos!!!!!!!
Thank you so much fall all your time. God bless you!
bomb huh? lol. Thanks Olga 🙂
Did you say this makes 2 servings?….well, that’s what it came to and now we are ready for a nap! Delicious…bet you can’t eat just ONE! This is so easy and so satisfying. I actually rolled mine like a blintz/eggroll. Slathered with sour cream and dusted with power sugar, we will definitely be eating these again and again. Thank you again and again for sharing your delicious recipes.
I’m glad you like them Zina, you are welcome :).
Mmmmm yum! I just made this recipe and it’s delicious!
I’m glad you like the recipe 🙂
Ok… these are the BEST blinchiki I’ve made! I have tried several recipes from several other Russian websites, but often they seemed to just fall apart when I tried to turn them over. These all turned out beautiful (minus the first one, but hey… pervii blin komom, right?). Thank you for your recipe! I often turn to your website when I want to try something new 🙂
Thank you for such a sweet comment, I’m glad you like the recipe :).
thanks for the great video and recipe, I just wanted to share for the girls that have a hard time flipping the crepes without ripping (meaning me, which by the way took forever for me to learn lol) I started using a rubber spatula to flip even the thinest crepes without ripping!It really helps! Yum now I want some Crepes!
Tanya; thanks for the tip! 🙂
Natasha, great video and recipe! Very professional video! I can tell you put a lot of time and work into it! Good idea on rinsing cottage cheese, never thought of that. I always just drained it but I like rinsing as it washes the sodium away. And the recipe is adapted using local ingredients. Very smart! Also, I have the same green spatula and thin black spatula. Where do you shop?:)
I actually bought the spatula at Ross; it’s an OXO so I’d call it a lucky find :); washing it also ensures that it won’t be too runny or juicy. The green spatula was sent to me to test out by Trudeau and they also sponsored a giveaway for it on my blog recently. I do love my spatula very much too! 😉
You can find some nice things at Ross, that’s true. I usually shop at HomeSense – a Canadian hybrid of American Ross and Marshalls.:) Love Trudeau products! Unfortunately I cut a little piece off of that green spatula by accident but it still works. Good quality stuff.:)
BEAUTIFUL!
I love this recipe. Ive tried it wit pineapple also very delicious. But ive bin mixing the raisins and pineapple chunks in the cream cheese filling, it didnt really mix well. Will have to try to just top it after spreading the cheese. Tanx for the video. Very funny crepe mask. Lol
Haha thanks 😉 and yes it’s definitely easier to sprinkle the raisins over the top 🙂
I love your videos, they’re fun to watch .
Crepes are a big hit in our family as well and I love making them after dinner as a light snack for the kids (never had them for breakfast and I don’t know why…??? lol ) I will be making them for breakfast soon and I love the fact that you can heat them up a bit before serving.
Thanks for posting and sharring this recipe/video with us 🙂
P.s. I have heard of crepes being served for breakfast , stuffed with scrambled eggs…. I think I might try that sometime soon too, sounds delicious 🙂 Have you ever had them ?
I haven’t tried that but it does sound really good and fancy!
Are you serious? Using a blender? That’s easier than assembling the stand mixer that is kept in the cabinet!…
And I also loved the filling idea. I usually make them with cream cheese. 2 packages of cream cheese and one can of raw condensed milk.
Blessings!
🙂
I know, right?! It’s just the touch of a button 🙂 I’ve been making them this way for years!
Have you ever tried to add some vanilla to actual crepes butter
the aroma is amazing! 😉
Oh I love that idea. Thanks Lina!
Great video…. especially loved the presentation of the crepes with the blueberries and the powdered sugar falling like snow…. Beautiful!!!
Thanks Lena 🙂 It was all Vadim (the Mr.:)
Talented Hubby you have 🙂 thats wonderful!!! Blessings to your family!!!!!
Yeah, he’s a keeper 😉 and I’m so proud of him. Blessings to you as well Lena!
Love the video. Thank you so much for all your work 🙂 Looking forward to more great videos.
Thanks Sarah for the encouragement 🙂 Putting videos out there is a hard thing to do; it seems so much more “vulnerable” than posting a picture. It’s like whoa that’s me talking there. It’s kinda strange. But thanks 🙂
Great video:) My husband, daughter, and I love blini 🙂 Will make some soon 🙂
Thanks Oksana 🙂 I’m itching to make another batch too; maybe Monday!
In our house crepes barely make it to the table. Sometimes I gotta make them when the kids are asleep and then they have a yummy surprise in the morning:)
Natasha, have you tried baking stuffed crepes in heavy whipping cream? It’s delicious!
That sounds delicious! How long and at what temp do you bake them?
350F for about 30+ min or untill they are nice golden color. I stuff them with farmers cheese(sweetened with sugar) and roll them like a tuny burrito. Arrange them in one layer in glass Pyrex dish, pour heavy whipping cream so it would cover crepes, sprinkle with sugar.
Oh yumm; thank you! 🙂
We do it the same way! love crepes. Anyway you make them they are just delicious. Nothing can beat this simple but yet such elegant yumm dish :))
One thing that we do different is instead of sugar for the filling, we use condensed milk and some vanilla. yummy:))
I should try your variation next time, can’t go wrong with condensed milk :). What are the amounts that you use?
My mom makes them this way. Yum! My Canadian friends can’t get enough of them.:)
Blini Yum! One of my favorite things to eat!
You have good taste! 😉