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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.
Hi Natasha
I love your presentation. What did you put underneath the crepe
Hi Irene, a little jam should do the trick 🙂
Hello Natasha I would like to say big thank you for this receipe . I tried so many and never was able to make them . But with this receipe I finally was able to make them and hasle free ! Also I would like to mention I use coconut oil instead of butter and they turn out so good ! It’s 1 to 1 so I just used 4 tbs of coconut oil maybe it will help someone if they run out of butter or trying to make this dish a bit healther.
Hello Lily! I’m glad you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your great review with other readers!
Is there anything that I can substitute for the cottage cheese?
Hi Zena, you might try this Greek yogurt filling instead 🙂
Do you think I can prepare them in advance and freeze them?
Hi Oksana, I do think that would work fine. You might want to put layers of wax or parchment or plastic wrap between layers of cheese crepes so they don’t stick to each other when they thaw.
I love you crepe recipe! So easy and always perfect.
Although I have another question: I’d like to make then tomorrow (Wednesday) for Saturday breakfast. Should put them in the freezer and thaw the night over? Can I also bake them a little? Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you:)
You can fully make them, place them in glass pyrex, cover and refrigerate until ready to use. They stay good at least a week in the fridge.
You are a natural in front of the camera. It would be nice for you to have your own cooking show. Why not submit a video to Food Network or other network.
Love your recipes and videos. : )
You are so nice, seriously!! Thank you so much 🙂
I love you recipe and I love the creeps but I put on my club soda and lemon zest Romania recipes
Wow club soda and lemon zest sound interesting! I’ve never tried that before. Do you omit the water and add club soda instead?
Hi Natasha!
How many days can ahead can I make the crepes without the filling?
They would last 2-3 days pretty well but I would recommend layering them with ceran wrap or parchment or wax paper so they don’t start sticking to each other.
I made these twice already! And my familly loved them:)
Keeping the recepie! Thank you so much😄
I’m so happy you like the recipe! These are definitely our favorite make-ahead breakfast. I could eat them for weeks on end and never get tired of them 🙂 Such a treat!
Hubby made four batches of these for Easter dinner. He definitely impressed the guests! They’re great reheated as leftovers as well.
4 batches – that’s awesome!! I’m so happy to hear you all liked the crepes :). Thanks for sharing that with us!
Thanks for recipe, I made them with gluten free flour and it was still amazing. Just needs more flour 1 1/4. taste really good..
Thank you so much for sharing that!! I’ve been curious about whether or not this would work with GF flour! What brand do you use?
Is using regular cottage cheese okay?
Yes 🙂
Made these yesterday. They are delish. I doubled the recipe. I also topped them off with your blueberry cheesecake topping. The only thing I did different is I used half blueberry and half black current. And I finished them off with dollop of sweetened sour cream. Yum Yum.
Oh wow I imagine the black current was delicious over these! Yum!!
Hi Natasha, I was wondering if any of the ingredients have to be at room temperature? After I’m done mixing it, it gets really crystallized. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? Thanks
Hi Yana, if your water is lukewarm and butter is melted, the other ingredients do not need to be at room temperature. Also, what do you mean by crystalized? Are you seeing flecks of butter? Did you use a blender to mix it?
this is amazing video, video is so much better, definitely not the same as pictures, Love, love, love your videos, keep them coming, I know it’s hard, but i think it’s fun also :-)) I always ended up with messed up nalisniki, I even gave up for a while, but seeing this video it encourages me and planing to make it tomorrow, thank you for all your hard work.
Thank you so much for the video making motivation! My husband is always pushing me to make more videos, but I agree with you; although it is fun, it’s also hard work! 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed the video and I hope you love the nalesniki. This is our go-to recipe and it’s so easy 🙂
LOVE YOUR COOKING OMG GIRL
Penolape, thank you so much for your sweet comment, have a great New Year! 🙂
Made these today!! Love them!! I’ve made them before with some other recipes and they just weren’t so good but these I will be remaking over and over. Btw, do u have a recopy of how to make tvorog from bad milk?.. Thanks so much for all that you do!!
Thanks Erica! Here is the recipe you’re looking for
I have made this Nalistniki twice this week my family of 7 loved them so much. They ate faster then I cooked them, LOL!
Thank you Natasha so much for an amazing site. God Bless your family!!!
That’s fantastic!! These are definitely a favorite in our home too!
You are really so amazing. I love your blog and your recipes so much. I am not sure if you take the pictures but even the pictures are amazing and so helpful. You are really talented.
Margaret, thank you so much for your sweet words. We both take the photos (my hubby and I) 🙂
Awesome video 😉 Thank you.
You’re so sweet. I’m so glad you liked it 🙂