These Brown Butter Crêpes with Berry and Cheesecake Filling makes a sublime dessert or a most decadent dessert! You decide.
Brown Butter Crêpes
Raspberries and strawberries were our assigned Dessert Challenge ingredients for June…and after my Strawberry Cream Cheese Dessert and Spinach, Berries and Almond Salad posts of late, I brainstormed to come up with the perfect berry recipe. I had an extra 4 ounces of cream cheese leftover from the luscious aforementioned strawberry pie, so I went with a childhood favorite with a couple twists….one being a cheesecake filling. And second was using brown butter in the batter. Ooh, la, la, that’s how these Brown Butter Crêpes with Berry and Cheesecake filling were born!
A Step Up from My Childhood Memories
My mom taught us to make crêpes as teens, but our filling tended to be from an unglamorous can of cherry pie filling. In fact, I loaded up my youngest sister Maddy’s crêpe with SO much of that cherry concoction, that I think she’s sworn it off for life. Adding brown butter to the crêpe batter gave a wee bit of nuttiness to the pancakes. I used a mixture of cream cheese, lemon, vanilla and whipped cream along with a sprinkling of ripe berries and sliced strawberries to fill these…maybe a step up from the can. Mmmmm….divine. Either an exquisite, decadent breakfast or a just plain heavenly dessert…you decide.
Thanks to Sheryl, of Lady Behind the Curtain, for hosting the Dessert Challenge each month.
Don’t forget to enter for a chance to win a stylish Albion Fit work out jacket giveaway on my Monday post.
Brown Butter Crêpes with Berries and Cheesecake Filling
Crepes recipe adapted from Fine Cooking
Crepes:
- 3 1/2 + tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 /2 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk (use more to thin batter if needed)
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cups flour
For filling:
- 4 ounces cream cheese (at room temperature)
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- Ripe berries of your choice
- In asaucepan, cook the butter over medium heat, swirling it every
- few seconds, until melted and golden brown, 2 to 4 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
- Combine the milk, eggs, and salt in a blender. Blend till mixed, then add the flour and blend until very smooth. Add the brown butter and blend for a few more seconds.
- Allow the batter to rest at least 5 minutes and up to one day (refrigerate if not using immediately).
- Batter should thicken but not be as thick as regular pancake batter. Thin as needed after resting period.
- Heat a crêpe pan or nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Grease with a little butter on a paper towel.
- Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter into the center of the
- pan while tilting and turning it till a thin circle of batter covers most of the surface of the pan.
- Cook till the edges begin to dry and lift from the sides of the pan and the
- bottom browns, about 1 minute. Flip using a spatula or your fingers, and cook until the second side is browned, about 20 seconds more.Remove from pan and repeat with the
- remaining batter, adding more butter as needed.
- To make filling beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice, zest and vanilla. In another bowl, whip cream. Carefully mix together.
- Place spoonfuls of filling along center of crepe and arrange berries over cream. Roll up and garnish with berries. Serve immediately.
Yield: 6-8 crepes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Berries, crepes and cream cheese are made to go together. That is one beautiful dessert, Lizzy.
I think I died and went to heaven. This sounds so good, it could double as a breakfast item right!? 😉
You made me swoon with the idea of brown butter crepes! Just the thing to make crepe batter even better. This is my new crepe batter from now on. About the fillings, there are so many good ones, it´s never ending…
and now I’m obsessed with the idea of brown butter crepes.
How lovely, Liz! Yes, your presentation is stellar and looks irresistible. (How can you go wrong with a cheesecake filling in crepe?) But how lovely, too, that your mother taught you and your sister how to make crepes in your teens.
Your crepes are perfect! It’s so awesome that your mom taught you to make them. My mom would make them for us and we’d have flipping contests, but I never learned how she did it. Maybe I’ll have to get to teach me next time I head north.
Beautiful pairing, Liz! I can never resist strawberries!
Simply spectacular and creative as always
ohhh, this looks really good! I mean we could have this for breakfast! Every time I read your posts, I just want to hang out in your kitchen and cook with you, I don’t know what it is! Love your recipes!
Wow, your crepes look amazing Liz! B and I love crepes, and we can’t wait to try out your recipe, the brown butter sounds amazing!
I missed the link-up time for the Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge, hope you’ll stop by and check out my contribution: http://thecookssister.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/behind-the-curtain-dessert-challenge-strawberries-and-raspberries-stewed-rhubarb-with-strawberries-and-raspberries/
Wow! These look amazing!
I got hooked on brown butter, but I never thought of crepe with brown butter. I have to make it this weekend. I can hardly wait!!!!
Oh they look so perfectly delicious! I love crepes and make them all the time, but they never look that good 🙂
I love crepes and yours sound great with those beautiful strawberries in them. What I can’t figure out though is “How that Skinny Chick Can Bake” and not gain a pound. That’s what you should be sharing with everyone!
I genuinely do not know how many desserts you rolled into one here but they all look incredibly fabulous together 🙂
Yum!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
These are the prettiest crepes ever! I adore the berries and cheesecake filling.
How did you know that crepes are my ULTIMATE weakness?!
Oh how funny I posted my crepes recipe on Tuesday and now running into your gorgeous crepes. I love the filling and sounds like a scrumptious treat. Thanks for sharing Liz:)
Very pretty! I love all the colors and your berries are beautiful:@)
One single plate would not be enough for me. I love crepes and these ones with a cheesecake and fruit filling make me devour them even more. Gorgeous pictures, Liz!!!
What a great idea to use brown butter to make these crepes Liz! They look amazing! Love the sound of the lemony cream cheese filling, goes perfect with the berries 🙂
How do you keep coming up with such great desserts, Liz? This one sounds fabulous! All those berries – and brown butter? Perfect. Your photos are lovely too.
I’ve been dying to make crepes again and pondering over the filling I want to use. I have bridge fore 8 ladies later this month. Do you think I could make the filling and refrigerate, then assemble and serve 4 hrs later for dessert after lunch?
Yes, you can definitely make the components ahead of time. And you might even want to add a little jam or berry sauce on top of the filling as well. Hope your friends enjoy them, Kaye!
I LOVE crepes!
I love crepes! My mom used to make them for special breakfasts when I was growing up. We just put different jams inside. I could eat SO many of them. This reminds me that I really need to make them soon! I bet this brown butter version is out of this world 🙂
This sounds heavenly Liz, just heavenly. I have the feeling I’d think I was there with the first bite 🙂
So elegant and beautiful! The crepes must have tasted wonderfully delicious, Liz.
One of our favs.. Craving one now!!!
I love crepes and have eaten them all my life. Both my grandmothers were French and well, crepes were a requirement. 🙂
Neither of them made crepes that looked this good.
I love crepes and with a cream cheese and berry filling these would be wonderful xx
These crepes look sublime, Liz! So elegant and beautiful and the perfect summery dessert! Oh, and the brown butter – now, we’re talking. I love them 🙂
You have a gift with berries. Everything you use them on looks so tempting and all the berries look picture perfect.
What gorgeous crepes, Liz! I went to a cooking class a year ago and had to make them – let’s just say mine looked like the opposite of yours. You can’t go wrong with sweetened cream cheese and strawberries. What a perfectly decadent summer dessert.
LOVE your recipe! Thanks for participating in Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge. I can’t wait to see what you create for next month’s challenge. Blueberries and Lemon! Have a GREAT week! ~Sheryl @ Lady Behind The Curtain~
Love crepes. Love them with berries and a light cream cheese filling. I know these are winners. 🙂
Love! This is super, Lizzy.
We adore crepes! Liv actually makes her own and does a fine job of it. I don’t know many other 13 year olds who come home and whip up a batch!! We haven’t done strawberry for a long time though… I think I need change that!
I love crepes and these look wonderful Lizzy! all these foos with strawberries look wonderful:)
Have a nice weekend!
Berries and cream cheese in crepes, simply great for an impressive breakfast.
Oh Liz – these crepes look delicious! I love the idea of making brown butter for the crepes. I could probably just eat the crepes by themselves.
These look great and I like the sound of the brown butter crepes.
Lizzy,
I’ve never made sweet crepes or even eaten them. Yours look wonderful. Beautiful presentation.
Annamaria
Give me five of these please!
ah man i looove crepes! perfect for summer breakfast too
I knew it from the thumbnail that you had made the crepes. like your recipes, your pictures always stand out.
I tried my hands at these crepes today. did not look as good. will try them again soon.
Pure Decadence, Liz. Xx WOWWwww.