Croatian Cheese Pancakes (Crepes)
This is a typical Northern Croatian dessert. It can be frozen if you have too much, but do not freeze after baking. Two pancakes are recommended as a serving. This recipe makes 18 small or 10 large pancakes.
This is a typical Northern Croatian dessert. It can be frozen if you have too much, but do not freeze after baking. Two pancakes are recommended as a serving. This recipe makes 18 small or 10 large pancakes.
- Carbohydrate 29.2593875 g
- Cholesterol 311.833333333333 mg
- Fat 18.8247 g
- Fiber 0.886666680177053 g
- Protein 16.3721666666667 g
- Saturated Fat 9.49108333333333 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (559g)
- Sodium 156.446666666667 mg
- Sugar 28.3727208198229 g
- Trans Fat 1.89815 g
- Calories 351 calories
Step-by-step
- Make crepes: mix milk, sugar, eggs and salt. If the mixture is too diluted add flour. Make pancakes and leave it until cool.
- Stuffing: mix well cheese, sour cream, yolks, sugar, and vanilla sugar. Soak raisins in plum brandy or rum until swell up (usually 2 hours). From egg white make ‒snow– and add into stuffing, and add raisins. Fill the crepes and roll them making sure that stuffing won’t get out. Put crepes in baking pan you’ve cover bottom with butter, pour over 300 g sour cream and put them into oven on 200°C for 20 minutes. If you bake frozen crepes make it 25 minutes. Take them out, wait 5-10 minutes to cool and eat.
Golden, paper-thin crepes emerge from the oven blanketed in a rich, bubbling layer of baked dairy that turns lightly golden at the edges while keeping the interior yielding and tender. Originating in Northern Croatia, this traditional dessert relies on thin wheat pancakes functioning as a structural wrapper for a dense, protein-rich cow cheese filling. Unlike standard dessert crepes served immediately with fruit or syrup, this regional variation undergoes a secondary baking phase in a buttered pan, transforming individual components into a cohesive casserole.
Regional Roots and Dairy Foundations
Traditional kitchens throughout Northern Croatia developed this recipe to utilize an abundance of fresh cow cheese, a mild, unripened curd similar to farmer cheese or dry quark. Local culinary traditions favor this specific cheese because its low moisture content prevents the crepe filling from weeping during the twenty-minute bake time at 200°C. Incorporating whipped egg whites into the cheese and sour cream mixture introduces microscopic air pockets, ensuring the interior achieves a soufflé-like lightness rather than a heavy, dense texture.Preserving Delicate Textures
Achieving the proper mouthfeel requires careful attention to the batter viscosity and the final baking environment. Overheating the rolled crepes will break the dairy proteins, causing the sour cream topping to curdle and release excess liquid into the baking dish. Allowing the baked dish to rest for ten minutes before serving lets the internal temperature drop just enough for the melted fats and proteins to reset, yielding clean portions that hold their cylindrical shape on the plate.
