Nalesniki- Polish Pancakes

One recipe that hardly qualifies as such is my mother's nalesniki. I don't know how she does it- she never follows a recipe, but they always come out fantastic. I guess it's just an instinctual thing, but I still like to quantify, so I got her to measure her ingredients until I found what seemed to be the "ideal" starting combination of ingredients. One thing that amazes me is how she skips all the steps I assume to be essential, often not sifting the flour, never adding salt, and mixing the batter very thoroughly without loosing tenderness. But I'll accept this unorthodox lack of methods and materials consistency if it means my favourite pancakes in the world.

I've tried to make these myself a few times, but I fell into such pitfalls as assuming a greater need for eggs than there are (you really only need them to bind the batter) and adding too much milk relative to water (they shouldn't be too thick). You also need a really good, reliable pan- this can take a while, but once you find "the One" it'll never let you down.

The absolute best way to serve these, in my opinion, is with sour cherry preserves and sour cream. However, the options are limitless as what you have on hand- we use all types of jam, nutella, a mixture of cottage cheese with sugar and fruit, a spread made of ground walnuts, honey and cinnamon, and essentially whatever else looks like it might be good.

The only very important thing to remember is to use enough butter for both flavour and sticking-avoidance. It takes some practice to perfect these, but they become a second nature to make very quickly. It's good to have one person filling and rolling them up while the other works the pan, so it never gets left batterless- that would make it burn. Try doubling the recipe for extras- they freeze excellently.

If you haven't ever tried this style of pancake, it's pretty much the standard for Central and Eastern Europe, with every region and nation having its own variations, not to mention every household. Some are thicker and some are thinner- some have more egg or fat, and some are more watery. It can all be experimented with as you go until you get them exactly how you want. If you don't add sugar or vanilla, and add a half teaspoon of salt, you can also make them savoury with such fillings as spinach and cheese or mushrooms. They're delicate and soft but also just chewy enough, and are all-around my favourite for a reason.

Nalesniki
Makes about a dozen

675 ml. Milk, 3.8% preferred
2 TBSP Sugar (use homemade vanilla sugar if you want more flavour!)
1 TBSP Oil (we use almond or hazelnut oil, but any neutral oil is fine)
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
300 g. Flour (pastry flour is better, but AP is fine)
2 Eggs, medium to large
Water as needed (fizzy mineral water is better)
About 1 Tsp. butter per pancake, to fry
Filling- Jam, preserves, cheese filling, chocolate spread and so on
Optional: Sour cream etc. to serve, depending on the filling

Mix the milk, sugar, oil and vanilla. Add the eggs and flour, sifting if very clumpy. Mix with whisk attachment on medium-high (or by hand) until well-incorporated. Thin out the batter with about 1/2 C. water to begin, adding more if necessary.

Heat up a good crêpe pan (something that distributes heat well, especially good is a cast iron pan) on high heat, then reduce to medium and melt a piece of butter. Ladle on about 1/4 C. of the batter and tilt the pan to coat evenly. The first will take the longest to cook, and might not come out well, but they do get better with each attempt- flip once it no longer has wet spots on the surface and cook for another thirty seconds before flipping onto a plate and spreading with filling and rolling up.

Keep warm in a 80℃ oven until ready to serve- give any optional toppings on the side.