Here is our basic recipe for Palacsinta–Hungarian crépes–

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 2/3 – 1 cup soda water
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled
• pinch of salt

This is our basic recipe. It all depends on the size of your eggs and you should plan to adjust the recipe if you need to get a very thin batter. Sometimes we just slowly added the wet ingredients with the dry and mixed with a whisk. Some instructions recommend letting the batter rest for an hour before using but we are often way too hungry to wait.

1/4 cup of batter will be all you need in the crépe pan as it should be thin enough to cover the bottom of a 10 inch pan. If you don’t have a crépe pan, you can use any kind of pan. I have watched someone use a cast iron skillet — I thought that was a little hard because it is such a heavy pan. If you haven’t made palacsinta before, this video from Kitchen Paprikash might be helpful to watch. Every time I make palacsinta it takes me about 3-4 tried to get the hang of it. Don’t be too hard on yourself. The mistakes are pretty tasty too.

Fill palacsinta with apricot, rosehip, sour cherry, plum, black currant, forest berries or any kind of jam, nutella, ground walnuts and sugar, or a mixture of cottage cheese (drained) or farmer’s cheese with a little sugar and grated lemon rind. I tend to use a very small amount of preserves but just figure out what works for you! We carry a variety of preserves imported from Hungary — order them here!

Cook’s note: Finding a recipe for palacsinta that you love and can work with that doesn’t have sugar is helpful because someday you find yourself making Hortobágyi palacsinta and it is important to have a neutral palacsinta for this savory dish. Feel free to experiment and have fun creating your family favorite variation of this recipe! I know of people who use more eggs or they don’t use soda water. There are a lot of variations out there but the key is to find something you know you can work with and make them as often as you can!