How to Make Polish Crepes: Nalesniki z Serem

These traditional Polish Crepes are sweet, tangy, and easy to make!

This is a recipe for the Polish version of crepes, nalesniki z serem — literally meaning, “pancakes with cheese.”

I’ve been making them basically forever.

And since I have Polish roots, these Polish crepes are technically authentic!

Get the recipe below, then keep reading for all of your questions answered!

Ingredients:

• Crepes:
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup flour
• Filling:
• 4oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cups sour cream
• 4 TBSP sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Leave your cream cheese out on your counter to soften for about 1 hour.
2. Whisk together your cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla (all of your filling ingredients) until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. In a clean bowl, whisk together your flour and eggs.
4. Add in the remaining ingredients for your crepes. Whisk until there are no lumps.
5. Preheat your 6″ skillet on the stove on medium heat. Add a tiny amount of butter onto the skillet to help prevent sticking.
6. Pour a small amount of batter onto your hot skillet, and tilt your skillet, moving it around in a circle to evenly disperse a very thin layer of batter in your pan.
7. Cook your crepe for about 3 minutes. With a spatula, check to see if your crepe is ready to be flipped by very carefully moving the edges of the crepe away from the pan in a circle.
8. Once the crepe no longer sticks to the pan, it is ready to be flipped. Flip your crepe, and cook for an additional 30 seconds before removing from the pan.
9. Continue cooking the rest of your crepes. This recipe makes 8 crepes.
10. Spread a thin layer of filling onto each crepe. Fold or roll your crepe. Eat as-is, or top it with the fruit of your choice!

Help! My crepes aren’t turning out!

Imperfect crepes can be caused by a couple of things.

You may have put too much batter into the pan. When you pour in your batter, you do NOT want to cover the whole skillet with batter.

Only pour a tiny bit of batter into your pan. Then — you will coat the entire bottom of your skillet with batter by IMMEDIATELY lifting and tilting your skillet in a circle until the batter covers the entire bottom of your skillet.

If this isn’t your issue, you might be cooking with too much butter!

It’s important to add butter to your first crepe, but be very careful not to add too much butter (if any at all!) when cooking the rest of your crepes.

And remember — the French have a saying: “la première crêpe est pour le chien” — this is in reference to that the first crepe often doesn’t turn out and is fed to the dogs!

While I think even the “ugly” crepes still taste good, it’s true that often adding butter to keep all your crepes from sticking does make that first crepe a little funky!

Keep your chin up and move along to the second crepe!