Nalesniki Recipe - Polish Crepes (2024)

Soft Polish crepes or Nalesniki filled with a smooth, sweet and delicious quark cheese filling.

These nalesniki or Polish crepes are some of the best crepes ever! You will love every bite of those tender thin crepes and their cheese filling.

I have a passion for crepes. I make them often and I make lots of them, all the time. My children adore them too, so if for some reason I don't think about making crepes for a while, it is a sure thing that one of the kids would remind me.

I usually make regular crepes filled with sugar or jam or ham and cheese. But now and then I try something more unusual, like the French Crepes with Rhubarb Compote, Wild Garlic or Beetroot Crepes. Today's nalesniki recipe is a bit more special than my usual stuff as well. Not so much the crepes themselves, but the filling.

Recipe ingredients

Crepes

• I used a mixture of milk and sparkling water, and I loved the result; I find that the sparkling water makes the crepes even softer and fluffier than they usually are.
• I never add sugar to the batter. I always fill part of the crepes with ham and cheese and sometimes with another savory filling, so the sugar would not be suitable in this case. And, when eating sweet pancakes, you already have the sugar in the filling.

Filling

• Quark with about 20% fat. You can use low-fat quark as well, but in this case, I prefer the medium one. It is dessert, after all. 🙂 And if you like quark, try these Fluffy Quark Muffins.
• Two egg yolks. As the egg yolks will remain raw in the filling, it is preferable to use pasteurized eggs just to be on the safe side.
• Vanilla sugar or regular sugar and a little pure vanilla extract.
• Read below for more suggestions on how to fill the nalesniki pancakes.

How to make nalesniki?

The batter

• Making these Polish crepes is easier than you might think. Just whip together the ingredients, let them rest for a while, and fry the crepes. Fill them with whatever you like, either sweet or savory, and enjoy.
• Whip up the ingredients, preferably using a hand-held mixer or a blender, if you like. My grandmother used to whip the ingredients with a regular whisk; however, nowadays, I find that using an electric mixer not only speeds up the process but makes the batter smoother and nicer to work with.
• When using an electric mixer, let the batter rest for a while. When you mix the ingredients, there will be a bit of foam forming, and if you start making the crepes immediately, the crepes will be full of holes.
• So make sure to let the batter rest until the foam disappears; about half an hour should be enough.
• But, if you want, you can make the batter well in advance, well covered. It will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge.
• In this case, the batter will thicken considerably, but you can easily thin it again by adding a bit more milk and stirring well, with a regular whisk this time, so that the foam will not form again.

Frying

• A good non-stick pan is a must!
• They will allow you to use only a very small amount of fat when frying, and the crepes will not stick.
• I pour a few tablespoons of vegetable oil into a small bowl and only brush the pan lightly before each crepe.
• And remember, no matter what pan you use, the first crepe will probably break. Just eat it immediately and forget about it!

The technique for making crepes

• Heat the pan over medium-high heat. Pour some vegetable oil into a small bowl. Brush the pan with a little oil.
• Use a soup ladle to pour the batter into the pan. Take the pan with the left hand (if you are right-handed) and pour the batter into the pan. Slowly rotate the pan to make sure that the batter spreads evenly onto the bottom of the pan.
• Cook for one or two minutes on the first side until the bottom is lightly browned and the top looks set. Loosen it by going around the edges of the pan using a rubber spatula, then flip it on the other side using the spatula.
• Fry the second side for only about half a minute. Stack them together on a plate and keep them warm in the oven while you make the rest.

Recipe FAQ

How to serve?

• Serve the Polish crepes with the quark filling, it is so good. Add a dollop of jam on top to make them even better. Otherwise whatever filling you like is fine!
• Sweet fillings: sugar, jam, compote, cottage cheese with honey and banana slices, any other fresh, canned, or stewed fruit or berries, Nutella, ice cream, and so on.
• Savory fillings: ham and cheese, only cheese (different sorts), ground meat sauce, chicken with various sauces, stir-fried vegetables, and so on.

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