Cheesecake Filled Strawberries…Covered in Chocolate!

I recently had some guests over for dinner. I’m planning on sharing each of the recipes with you from the appetizer to dessert, but guess what? I’m starting with dessert!

I made chocolate covered strawberries filled with cheesecake! These are no bake (no egg in the filling) and the only time consuming part is hulling out the strawberries. Here’s a little how-to from about.com. The only difference is that you’re going to cut out just a little bit more of the center to fit more filling! Now, I love gadgets but a strawberry huller is something I don’t see the point in buying, but if you have one, use that!

Once you rinse and hull your strawberries it’s super easy to complete. I’d say don’t prepare these more than a day in advance, because once you wash berries, their life on this earth is limited! You can always hull them BEFORE washing about a day before, and make the filling the day before and leave it in a ziploc bag. Then when you need to prepare them, wash, fill, and dip in chocolate.

Now, you don’t have to dip these in chocolate. They would be delicious without it, if you’re a strawberry purist!

The beauty of this recipe is that it can easily be doubled for entertaining at a party (just have a buddy to help you hull!).

Chocolate Covered Cheesecake Filled Strawberries
(Makes about 20ish strawberries)

1 lb. fresh strawberries
1 8 oz. package of Neufchatel cheese (reduced fat cream cheese) or regular cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 – 1/3 c. confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. semi-sweet, dark chocolate, or milk chocolate chips
1 regular graham cracker

Wash and hull out your strawberries, throwing out the ones that aren’t a pretty, vibrant red. If they have mushy bad spots, don’t use them!

If you’re preparing your strawberries a day in advance, just hull out the strawberries and wash before filling.

In a stand mixer or using an electric mixture, beat your cream cheese on medium speed for 3-4 minutes until the cheese is fluffy and smooth. Add the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla and beat until combined. I say 1/4-1/3 cup sugar because if you want them a little sweeter, add some more!

Spoon mixture into a large ziploc bag (Tip: Put the ziploc bag into a drinking glass with one of the corners pushed down to the bottom of the glass. This allows you to easily fill with the mixture and puts it right to the corner.) With the bag open, squeeze the filling to the corner of the bag and let the air out. If you’re using this the next day, zip up the bag. If using right away, don’t worry about it. Snip off about 1/2″ of the corner of the bag.

Now, grab a strawberry. Put the tip into the center of the strawberry and squeeze from the top of the filling in the bag. Fill the strawberry until a little bit of the filling is coming out of the strawberry. Repeat until all the strawberries are filled.

In a microwave safe bowl, put your chocolate chips. Microwave in 30 second intervals until the chips soften (probably about 1 minute total), stirring between shifts. Once the chips are softened, stir until they’re a uniform melted goodness.

Grab your filled strawberries. Using tongs or your fingers dip strawberries into chocolate and lay onto a parchment or wax paper lined baking sheet. Repeat until the strawberries are covered.

Refrigerate until the chocolate is set, about 1-2 hours.

Crush up a graham cracker in a ziploc bag using the bottom of the glass. Pour onto a small plate. Dip the exposed cheesecake end of the strawberries into the crushed graham cracker, placing them onto your serving tray. Repeat until done. Sprinkle with remaining graham crackers. Refrigerate until you’re ready to use them!

Enjoy 🙂

Best Dessert You Will Ever Eat: A Guest Post by Casi!

Hello to all of Vicki’s readers! I’m Casi and I’ve had the pleasure of cooking good food with Vicki on a number of occasions. We often end up talking about food a lot, as we both love to cook and share recipes with each other. Over the summer, we were brainstorming about “adult” milkshakes and what flavor combinations might be good. There’s a company in Philadelphia that produces liquors based on old Pennsylvania recipes: the first was ROOT (tastes like root beer, sooo good), the second was SNAP (as in gingersnap), and they recently produced a third: RHUBY (rhubarb flavored). I LOVE strawberry-rhubarb anything (grew up in Vermont where we had a rhubarb patch in our backyard, which makes the hunt for rhubarb here so frustrating—seriously, why is it so hard to locate?!) and Vicki and I thought a strawberry milkshake made with RHUBY sounded delicious!

Fast forward to Vicki getting a group of girls together to cook dinner this past week. I took on the dessert. I knew I didn’t want to do milkshakes because they can be so filling (and I was expecting to be full from the fabulous dinner the others were putting together!) So I started searching for a quick and easy alternative that could still incorporate RHUBY. I found a recipe for something called Syllabub.

…you read that right: Syllabub. Weird name, right? A little history lesson: Syllabub is a traditional English dessert that dates back to the 16^th century. It was originally made by milking a cow directly into a bucket filled with fermented cider. The result was a slightly curdled cream. And it’s definitely good enough to have lasted all these years!

The ingredients are simple: wine (I figured I could substitute liquor), whipping cream, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest.

Syllabub (adapted from the Kitchn)
Serves 4 (I doubled everything to serve the 6 of us and there was some leftover)

1/4 cup RHUBY
1/2 cup sugar (I personally felt this was a little much, try experimenting with less to suit your taste)
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup heavy whipping cream

1. In a small mixing bowl, combine the RHUBY, sugar, lemon juice, and zest and stir to dissolve.
2. In a separate chilled bowl, begin beating the cream with a hand whisk or electric mixer (or whatever method you use to make whipped cream).
3. Start to slowly add the liquor mixture, whisking it in constantly, until the cream is fluffy with soft peaks.
4. Serve immediately or cover and chill until ready to serve.

I chose to serve it with fresh strawberries to play off the rhubarb and lemon. I also like a little texture so I added store-bought lady fingers. As Vicki said, the result was a perfect blend of sweet and tangy, smooth and crunchy. And the variations are endless: think a sweet wine like Riesling or a liquor like Amaretto. And the fruit can be paired to the flavor of the liquor or the season. Maybe try the SNAP liquor with grilled figs and crushed gingersnaps for a fall variation, or Cointreau with broiled grapefruit sprinkled with toasted almonds in the winter. Be creative and hope you enjoy!