How to prepare perfect naleśniki, Polish crepes? I have some tricks to achieve utter success – crepes delicate as silk and thin as a paper sheet at the very first attempt. More to that: a recipe for a simple chocolate sauce that plays wonderfully with bananas and crepes – the iconic trio.
On the one hand, I love naleśniki that I used to eat during my childhood: those cooked by my dad, thick and sturdy. On the other hand, I adore those from the streets of Paris, thin as French models, with chocolate cream and a banana, eaten on the way from one cathedral to the other. To be honest, I think both variations are perfect. I have tested many recipes on my crepe-way to perfection, ultimately taking the path of crepes light and thin but enriched with a hint of nostalgia.
We all love crepes, don’t we? Do they even possess any element of mystery, being made and tried so many times? I guess not. I also guess that we all explore crepes in our kitchens on a daily basis. Still, I hope that you will find my recipe useful.
Here are my Golden Rules of Naleśniki:
1. To prepare super-delicate crepes, you have to make sure your batter is light and airy. This effect can be achieved either by replacing half a milk with sparkling water or by mixing all ingredients in a blender to get rid of any lumps.
2. I don’t believe in the necessity of leaving the batter in the fridge for the whole night. 15 minutes are enough to allow the flour to absorb the water and the gluten to “relax,” giving the batter the perfect consistency. It makes cooking crepes easier.
3. Cooking! Use good quality nonstick pan (all crepe pans have this nonstick layer), add a bit of olive oil to the batter, and to be extra-safe (and to add extra-heavenly flavor) grease the pan with a bit of butter. This step is necessary if you know that your crepes tend to stick to a pan. If not, repeat it every 2-3 crepes.
Perfect Polish Crepes Naleśniki + Chocolate Sauce
10 crepes
1 cup (250 ml) milk or plant-based drink
1 cup (250 ml) sparkling water or more milk
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large eggs
1 and ½ cups (200 g) cake wheat flour
2 teaspoons white sugar
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons cold butter
Chocolate Sauce
⅔ cup (160 g) heavy cream
1 ¾ oz. (50 g) milk chocolate, chopped
1 ¾ oz. (50 g) dark chocolate, chopped
¼ teaspoon sea salt
bananas, to serve
1. Put milk, sparkling water, olive oil, and eggs in a blender pitcher or a big bowl. Add flour, sugar, and salt. If you use a blender, blend the ingredients together until the batter is smooth, about 15 seconds. You can also mix ingredients using a whisk, but do it very thoroughly in order to avoid any lumps. Put the batter in a fridge for about 15 minutes for the gluten to start working and the batter to achieve a desirable consistency.
2. Heat the medium size crepe pan over high heat (you can also use a normal pan, but the crepe one makes cooking easier). Put some batter on a paper towel and grease the pan with it – be careful, the pan is hot! It has to be just slightly greased. Save the rest of the butter for later.
3. Pour about ¼ cup of batter onto the crepe pan and swirl it around the whole pan. Cook until gold bubbles appear at the bottom of a crepe, about 60 seconds. Then, using a spatula flip the crepe over (if needed, lever the crepe a bit). Cook until golden on the other side, about 30 seconds. Put on a plate and cover with plastic wrap to keep the temperature. Repeat the procedure of greasing the pan with butter and cooking crepes until using the whole batter.
4. In the meantime, prepare the chocolate sauce. Pour the heavy cream into a pot. Bring to a boil on medium heat. Take off the heat. Add milk and dark chocolate together with sea salt. Combine using a whisk or wooden spoon until the chocolate melts and the sauce is smooth. Set aside to cool. The sauce will thicken. When fully cooled, it has a consistency of a cream, but you can melt it to make it more liquid.
5. Serve crepes with chocolate sauce and banana or anything you fancy.
Advice/tips
You can quickly reheat crepes. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (top-bottom heating). Put crepes in a casserole dish, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for about 10-15 minutes (if you use crepes straight from the fridge) or for about 5-10 minutes (if your crepes have room temperature).
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Yours,
Rozkoszny
