Chocolate Crepes with Strawberry and Cream Cheese Filling

Strawberries and cream cheese wrapped in a thin, sweet crepe of chocolaty goodness! Who could resist? Certainly not Ole Sweetie-Pi as he's the chocolate lover in this house.

It took half a dozen tries to get the "feel" of making these crepes, knowing how much batter to use, how hot should the pan be, how much oil to use, how to tell when they're done, and lastly how to turn them without tearing them. While these crepes have similar characteristics to the others that I've made here, I think the sugar content in these made them a little more challenging (a more elevated word than trying!). I'm glad I persevered and now I would definitely make these again. Thinking about the sugar, these were very sweet, even for my very sweet sweet tooth. I think I would reduce the sugar in the cream filing by at least half, and maybe switch the chocolate from semi-sweet to bitter-sweet.

Chocolate Crepes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling

Begin one hour ahead:

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 1 cup)
3 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon salt

In a small saucepan, over low heat, melt the chocolate chips and butter together, stirring gently to prevent scorching. Take the pan off the heat just before all the chips are thoroughly melted, continuing to stir, allowing the residual heat to melt any remaining chips. Let cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, milk, water, vanilla and chocolate. Beat until well combined. Sift together the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt and then add to the liquid ingredients. Beat until smooth.

Cover and place in refrigerator for one hour.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling

2 cups strawberries,, washed, hulled, and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, combine the strawberries and sugar and set aside. In a separate, medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Gently fold in one cup of strawberries into the cream cheese. Spoon down center of crepe and then roll crepe up. Use remaining strawberries over top of crepes and serve. You should have enough filling for about six crepes.

You're going to have more batter than filling, but the nice thing about crepes is that they freeze well (layer them with waxed paper in between) . You can fill with canned cherry pie filling, or use grated orange peel and a splash of orange juice in the cream cheese mixture. Doesn't bananas sound good in this as well? Or how about as nice curd?