Does your husband or spouse send you links to recipes or food images that are shared all over social media? Mine does. Earlier this summer, he found a recipe for a cherry pie “lasagna.” When I mentioned that he’s not a huge fan of cherry pie filling, he suggested I figure out a way to make it with strawberry pie filling. I admitted that it sounded delicious, but wasn’t sure how to make it work, as strawberry pie filling has to be home-made.
I decided to take a stab at it and made a batch for Father’s Day. It turned out better than we expected, and everyone in the family loved it. This is definitely something we will be making again. I hope you love it as much as we did!
Ingredients
1 box vanilla wafer cookies
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 8oz tub. whipped topping
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cup sugar (divided)
1 lb. fresh strawberries
2 T corn starch
1 3 oz. pkg strawberry flavored gelatin
1 cup water
To Prepare
1. Start by preparing your strawberry pie filling. In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and corn starch. Add 1 cup boiling water and stir well. Cook over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in strawberry gelatin. Cool to room temperature.
2. While your mixture is cooling, prepare your strawberries. Trim the stems off the berries and slice as desired.
3. When the gelatin mixture is cooled, add in the strawberries and refrigerate until it begins to set up. 
4. While the strawberry mixture is in the fridge setting up, go ahead and begin to prepare your cheesecake layer. Mix together the cream cheese 1/4 cup sugar, and vanilla. Beat until the cheese is smooth and creamy. Beat in the whipped topping. (There is no need to be delicate and fold it in. Go ahead and mix it in.)
5. Place a layer of vanilla wafer cookies on the bottom of an 8×8 pan. I made a single layer of whole cookies. Next, place a layer of the cream cheese mixture on top of the cookies. You’re going to want to use about half of the mixture. I used my cookie scoop, and it made it a snap. The mixture will be thick and difficult to spread. Delicately use a spatula to spread, or if you desire, you may add a few T of milk to the cheesecake mixture to make it a bit more smooth.
Remove the strawberry mixture from the fridge. Using a slotted spoon, scoop up the strawberries in “pie sauce” and add a layer on top of the cheesecake layer. You’re going to have a lot of leftover “sauce” but the berries will have that great strawberry pie taste. I spooned a bit of the sauce on top of my layer of berries. Next, repeat the layers, adding a second layer of cookies, cheesecake, and berries in “pie sauce.”
6. Refrigerate the dessert until ready to serve. The berries will continue to set up, and the refrigeration will make the dessert easier to cut and serve.
ENJOY!!!
