Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Nalysnyky
Thin crepes rolled around sweet-savory curd cheese and baked in butter, a comforting Ukrainian home dish.
Ukrainian · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 25 min
~933 cal · 42g protein · 69g carbs · 54g fat · 2g fiber · 28g sugars · 33g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Nalysnyky are the thin, tender crepes of Ukrainian home cooking, close cousins of the blini but rolled around a filling and baked. They are everyday food and holiday food alike, made in batches and warmed through in butter or cream.
The most classic filling is a lightly sweetened farmer's cheese (syr) brightened with a little sugar and sometimes raisins, though savoury fillings of mushroom, meat, or potato are just as common. Rolled up, arranged in a dish, and baked until the edges crisp, they are simple, homely, and deeply satisfying.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 1/2 cups flour
3 eggs
2 cups milk
1 lb farmer's cheese (curd)
3 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups water
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup raisins (optional)
Instructions
1
Whisk the eggs with the milk and an equal quantity of water, beat in the flour, sugar and salt, then stir through 4 tbsp of the melted butter and rest the batter 30 minutes to 2 hours.
✎ Chef’s note
Equal parts milk and water is what makes nalysnyky thinner and more delicate than a French crepe, and the rest lets the flour hydrate so they do not tear. Aim for a batter slightly thicker than heavy cream, and stir it again before every crepe.
2
Cook them very thin in a hot, lightly oiled pan, about a minute on the first side and 20 to 30 seconds on the second, stacking them under a tea towel as they come off.
3
Soak the raisins in hot water for 30 minutes and drain them, then mix them into the curd cheese with sugar, the vanilla and a pinch of salt.
4
Brush each warm crepe with a little melted butter, spread a thin layer of filling over it, and roll it into a tight cylinder.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep the crepes thin and do not overfill. A thin wrapper and a modest line of filling roll up neatly and heat through evenly.
5
Arrange in a buttered dish and bake at 350F (180C) until hot and the edges crisp, about 15 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
For the richer version, spoon sour cream or vershky over the rolled nalysnyky before they go in the oven. They bake into something closer to a pudding, with the edges still crisping.
Ukrainian home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Poltava. This is chernozem country, the deep black soil belt, and the cooking follows what grows easily there. Varenyky are filled with cherries in summer and potato or curd cheese the rest of the year, salo is salted and kept for months, and garlic, dill and soured cream turn up so consistently that their absence would be noticed.
🗺️
Ukraine. Roughly a third of the world's chernozem, the deep black soil that grows grain with little help, lies in Ukraine, and the flat, large fields on top of it are why the country supplied about half the world's exported sunflower oil before 2022. What that soil produces at home is the dark sourdough bread and the sunflower oil poured over everything.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Ukraine
Varenyky (Potato Dumplings)Half-moon dumplings of tender dough filled with mashed potato and fried onion, boiled and tossed in butter, served with fried onions and sour cream.
BorschtThe famous beet soup, sweet-sour and garnet-red, ladled over beans and finished with dill and sour cream.
Chicken KyivA breaded chicken cutlet rolled around herb-garlic butter that bursts out golden when you cut in.
Browse all Ukraine recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Whisk.
Storing it: Best fresh and hot. Keep batter covered in the fridge for up to a day, and rewarm cooked ones in a dry pan.
Make it a Ukraine meal
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BorschtDinner
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Nalysnyky?
Thin crepes rolled around sweet-savory curd cheese and baked in butter, a comforting Ukrainian home dish.
Where does Nalysnyky come from?
Nalysnyky is a Ukrainian dish from Poltava, Ukraine.
Can Nalysnyky be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Nalysnyky recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Nalysnyky safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Nalysnyky take to make?
About 50 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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