Strawberry Cheesecake Crepe Stack & a Gift!

Last week I checked my email and was honored to receive an email stating that my pretzel recipe had been picked for the top 3 Made it on Monday submissions at Lark's Country Heart!  As if that wasn't enough, it was prize week and Lark was kind enough to send me a gift.  It arrived yesterday:

Lark sent me a lovely note, a cake tester, paring knife, kitchen timer, and garlic dip mix!  What a sweet (well, savory actually) surprise! I've never used an actual cake tester before, so I'm so excited for the next time I bake a cake.  And I don't have a kitchen timer yet, so now I can finally time more than 1 thing.  I can never have too many knifes, and I have a serious obsession with garlic.  So this was the perfect gift for me!  Thank you so much Lark!!!

Aren't blog friends awesome? :)

Now, onto today's recipe!

I love to make crepes; they are so versatile and delicious!  When I would make dinner as a teenager, I would often make crepes for dessert.  When I was in Romania, I had Nutella filled crepes for breakfast!  I made a similar version of this dessert with blueberries once, a long time ago.  When my mom asked me to bring dessert for Sunday dinner I got a craving for crepes.  And, since strawberries were on sale for $1 a pound, this is what I brought!

You will need:

2 eggs

1 cup milk

2/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla, divided

1-1/2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 pound fresh (or frozen) strawberries

1 cup sugar

8 oz cream cheese (I used Neufchatel)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1.  Make crepes:

-Combine eggs, milk, flour, salt, and 1 teaspoon vanilla until smooth.

-Heat a small skillet (I used an 8") over medium heat and grease with cooking spray.

-Pour 1/4 cup of batter into skillet and rotate to coat the surface of the pan.

-Cook until set and then flip.  

-Repeat with remaining batter.

2.  In a medium sauce pan, heat strawberries until they start to get mushy.  Mash with a potato smasher.  

3.  Add in sugar and bring to a simmer.  Continue to simmer until the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes.  If your sauce doesn't thicken, stir 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch into 1 cup of cold water to form a thin paste.  Stir into sauce to thicken sauce.

4.  In a small bowl, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and remaining teaspoon of vanilla until smooth.  You can add more powdered sugar if you want it sweeter.

5.  Begin layering your dessert.  Spread cream cheese topping over a crepe.  Then top with a crepe and top with strawberry sauce.  Continue stacking until you've used all your crepes.  

6.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Serve immediately.  I sliced into the stack like a pie. The different layers did tend to slide a bit, so I found it's best to serve as quickly as possible so the whole stack doesn't flop over!