Raspberry Cheesecake Crepes

As I've mentioned before, breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. Even though it’s usually eaten as quickly as possible while I check my email in the morning before heading off to school, and it usually consists of something simple like a bowl of cereal or toast with peanut butter, there’s something so comforting about starting your day with a familiar meal that will fuel you through the morning. While I usually try to keep it healthy at breakfast, I do like to splurge on weekends with Ryan, experimenting with different pancake or crepe recipes so that he can wake up to a delicious meal (he’s spoiled).

These raspberry cheesecake crepes were my latest creation, and also the most decadent breakfast I’ve made in a while – not to mention the most delicious! A thin vanilla crepe is wrapped around a filling of sweet cream cheese, raspberries, and crushed graham crackers, then topped with warm raspberry sauce and icing sugar – just writing that sentence already has my mouth watering again! Here’s a shot of the inside of the crepe:

Note that I didn’t put quite enough cream cheese or graham crackers in the crepe that’s pictured, and I also topped it with a little too much raspberry sauce, so it tasted more like a raspberry crepe and than a raspberry cheesecake crepe. That’s not a bad thing, but if you want the cheesecake flavour to come through more strongly, then add more filling than I did. The recipe makes enough filling – I just wasn’t sure how much to put on my first crepe, so if you make them all at once you’ll be able to divide it up a little better. You could also eliminate the fresh berries in the middle of the crepe, or add some crushed graham crackers on top if you want to play around with it a bit to your liking.

I’ve broken the recipe down into different parts to make it a little easier to read, but writing it that way probably makes it seem like more work that it actually was. While there are a few different components to make, overall this dish is quite easy - the crepe batter is all mixed in one bowl, and the other components only take a couple minutes to assemble. Don’t tell your guests that though – they’ll be so impressed with this dish that they might even offer to do the dishes for you – mine did! (but I helped him – did I mention he’s spoiled?)

While we ate this for breakfast (or brunch I guess, since we ate around 11am), they would also be a great dessert to serve to guests or a loved one for a special occasion. Whatever your reason for making them, just be sure you do, you won’t regret it!

Raspberry Cheesecake Crepes

Crepe recipe adapted from All Recipes, everything else is my own recipe

Makes 4-5 crepes (Serves 2 as a filling meal, or 4-5 as a lighter meal of one crepe each)

Ingredients:

For the filling:

3 oz reduced-fat cream cheese

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4-5 graham crackers

1/2 cup raspberries

For the raspberry sauce:

1/2 to 3/4 cup raspberries

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon water

For the crepes:

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon milk

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon melted butter

Directions:

For the filling:

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth (this can all be done by hand). Set aside.

In another small bowl, crush the graham crackers into small pieces –about half should be crushed into fine crumbs and half in small pieces. Set aside.

Set the raspberries aside also. Having all three components ready will make it easier to assemble the crepes when they’re done.

For the raspberry sauce:

Place the raspberries in a small saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle the sugar and water over the berries and let simmer gently while you make the crepes. Mash the berries as they’re cooking. You can strain out the seeds afterwards if desired, but I don’t bother.

For the crepes:

In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the flour, sugar, salt, and melted butter until well blended. The consistency should be thin and pourable, like a drinkable yogurt.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat until hot, and coat with cooking spray. Pour about ¼ cup of the batter into the pan and quickly tip the pan to swirl the batter around so that it coats the pan. When the edges are dry and pulling away from the sides of the pan, and bubbles are forming in the middle of the crepe, then it’s time to flip it over (this only takes about a minute). Gently flip the crepe using a spatula, and cook briefly on the other side until lightly browned. Repeat with the rest of the batter, using ¼ cup at a time.

To assemble crepes:

Lay a crepe flat on a plate. Spread cream cheese mixture down the centre of the crepe. Top with fresh raspberries and graham cracker crumbs. Roll each edge of the crepe over the filling. Top with raspberry sauce, and sprinkle icing sugar or extra graham cracker crumbs on top if desired. Serve warm.