If you haven’t read the Inspiration section of this website prior to reading the rest of this post, I highly recommend you do. Mainly because it explains the copious amounts of sinful butter in this recipe. Well, it sort of does. It more or less justifies it as an essential in Ukrainian cuisine.
Nalysnyky (pronounced NAL-YES-NAH-KEH) is a staple on our family dinner table on all holidays. They are often made ahead of time and frozen until the day of the dinner event. I actually have never had them otherwise until I made this recipe with Claudia for the blog. I have to admit, if you can, eating them fresh is the way to go. Nalysnyky is essentially cheese filled crepes (slathered in butter of course and baked). This recipe takes a total of one hour from start to finish and truly is worth every minute.
The ingredient line-up
You will need :
4 eggs
1 heaping cup milk (1% works well)
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
For Cheese filling:
2 cups Quark Whole Milk Cheese (if you cannot find this, you can substitute cottage cheese)
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp whipping cream
1 tbsp dill (or more to taste – use fresh if you have. If not, the dried stuff works great as well)
Beat eggs one at a time. Add the milk, water, flour and salt and beat enough just to blend and get rid of any lumps.
Pour 1 tbsp canola oil in a hot non-stick pan and scoop 3/4 of a ladel full of batter and swirl around creating a thin circular layer. Flip when side is golden brown (approximately 45 seconds). Oil pan in between each crepe as needed.
Makes approximately 8 – 10 crepes. Beautifully golden brown!
Next, melt 1/4 cup of butter and ensure your cheese is at room temperature.
Mix egg yolks, whipping cream and salt with cheese.
Add your dill.
Lightly spread an even layer of cheese on each crepe.
Roll up gently.
We cut each crepe in three equal pieces. However, you can easily keep them in tact. I find the pieces are easier to fit into the bowl if they are sectioned.
Remember that melted butter? How could you forget! Spoon a small amount into the bottom of a large foiled casserole dish.
Now start layering in your Nalysnyky.
Make sure to butter in between each layer and on top of your final layer. You don’t want any layers to stick together.
Claudia claims all TV food ads use glistening chemicals to ensure their products look appealing. She is proud of her use of butter for this effect in this photo.
Wrap the sides of the foil loosely over the top of the Nalysnyky.
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.
The final product.
The Nalysnyky puffs up nicely as it bakes.
Cheesy deliciousness.
One traditional recipe from Claudia’s Cookbook down, a few hundred more to go!
Oh, way cool. I love that there’s pictures.
Thanks! My vision is to have tons of images for this blog! I love them and it’s way easier to see what you are supposed to be doing while cooking.
they look so good!! great job with the crepes and the cheese filling
is perfect…
thanks for sharing
Dennis
Thank you so much Dennis! I just peaked at your blog as well – your dishes look fantastic. I can’t wait to try some of your recipes!
There is nothing better than Ukrainian dishes. I’ve started to document my grandmas down on paper because recipes don’t exist…it all in their heads and they go by feel. Looking forward to visiting your blog again!
~Prairie Story …care of Alison Zulyniak
I felt the same way about my Mother’s recipes! Good to hear you are doing the same and documenting them. I look forward to reading your blog and learning your family favourites as well! Thanks for commenting!
Thanks very much for your effort and wonderful recipes!
You’re very welcome Nataliya! Thanks for visiting the blog!
Are there different knds of fillings you can use because my friend made it with this sweet creamy filling, and I’m wondering how she did it! CAN U PLEASE HELP ME!!
Your friend probably made you crepes! There are many different sweet fillings you can use for crepes. This recipe from Bitchin Kitchen – Ricotta Crepes with raspberry coulis are my favourite: click here for the recipe!
A friend said she was making some of these and I hadn’t a clue what they were which is how I got here.
They look absolutely amazing.
Great! Let us know how it turned out!
I came across this blog looking for some recipes from Prairie community cookbooks because I wanted the recipes for food I grew up with as a kid in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The church cookbooks are the best but I think running into your blog was even better! Fantastic photos and the Ukrainian recipes bring back such memories. We always had the wheat at Christmas but I never ate it either. Thanks so much for sharing.
I love church and community cookbooks! They have the best recipes and we have tons of them in our home. Good to know I’m not the only “brat” who doesn’t like wheat
Thank you very much for the comments Theresa!
As a little girl, I could never get enough of the Kutia that my Granny made! To this day, I love it and most “grainy” foods! I guess I’m an exception to the Kutia rule! LOL!
BTW, the Nalysnyky is making me drool!
Thanks for your comments Laurie! I think I’m the exception to the rule for NOT really liking Kutia
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I cannot find Quark cheese anywhere and everyone seems to have a differing opinion on what would be the best substitute; I’ve heard: 1. yogourt cheese…basically straining plain yogourt; 2. marscapone cheese; 3. a mixture of ricotta and sour cream; 4. cottage cheese, where some specify dry curd and some say “smooth dry curd”…
I ended up buying dry curd cottage cheese…
what’s your recommendation? I really want to make these for Christmas Eve:)
thanks very much
……….M.
Hi Meryl,
The traditional way is to actually use dry curd cottage cheese. So what you bought is perfect. What we recommend you do is put the dry curd cottage cheese in the food processor and pulse it to get it more smooth.
Another option we recommend is ricotta cheese on its own as well. We have done that before and it tastes great. Good luck and let me know how it turns out!
We’ve always used ricotta for the filling, and we bake ours in cream, which soaks into the creeps nicely. And, of course, all of the dill we can chop in the filling and in the cream.
I’m not Ukrainian. I’m Norwegian and frankly Norway’s cuisine is mostly fish… I hate fish. love seafood, shrimp, crab, etc. fish though? YUCK! My boyfriend (and therefore my son as well) is Ukrainian though and I have always loved Ukrainian food. It’s popular in our area. Cabbage rolls and perogies… my 2 faves! never heard of this though but it sounds delicious and I’m planning on making it. Hoping it might impress the boyfriend with my skills at Ukrianian cooking
Though I cannot stand cooked cottage cheese, it makes me sick. blech (Hate lasagna for that reason too) and Quarks cheese is impossible to find in Canada I’m going to try it with the Ricotta. sure sounds delicious!
P.S. hope you don’t mind. I’ve shared this recipe on Pinterest as well, it links directly to your website here so hopefully alot more people will try it too
Hi Ashton – thank you very much for your comments! I hope you impress your boyfriend with this recipe
It’s delicious. Ricotta cheese works very well for this recipe and I also prefer it to cotage cheese. Thank you also for sharing it on Pinterest. I love that site and appreciate the additional promo 