Oh. My. God. YUM.
Labor-intensive but not difficult, and impressive-looking. My mouth is watering just writing this post.
Chocolate-Dipped Cheesecake-Stuffed Strawberries
Adapted from Nutmeg Nanny
Ingredients
- 1 pint of strawberries -- preferably at least 1 ounce in size
- 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
- ½ cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (don't use imitation in this recipe)
- 12 oz white chocolate (use a baking bar -- don't use white chocolate chips; they don't thin out enough for dipping)
- 2 oz semisweet chocolate (optional)
Directions
- Place a baking sheet lined with wax paper in the freezer. Place a small pot filled with about half an inch to an inch of water on the stove to boil.
- Hull: the strawberries: Cut off the top of each berry, discard, then take a pairing knife, and carefully hollow out the middle of the strawberry. Repeat with all strawberries.
- Beat the cream cheese until smooth, at least 5 minutes. Check your pot of water. If it's boiling, turn it down to a simmer.
- Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar and the vanilla.
- Fit a pastry bag with a small round tip, and fill the bag halfway with the cheesecake mixture.
- Pipe the mixture into each strawberry, just until it creates a little mound on the top.
- Chill the strawberries in the refrigerator.
- Coarsely chop the baking bar, and place the chocolate in a CLEAN, DRY metal bowl that is slightly larger than your pot of water. Place the bowl over the water, and stir the chocolate until melted and smooth.
- Pull out your strawberries, and the baking sheet from the freezer.
- Dip each strawberry in the chocolate and place on the frozen baking pan to set.
- OPTIONAL: Melt the semisweet chocolate in a bowl in the microwave by heating the chocolate on 50% power for 1 minute, then stirring, then 30 seconds on 50%, then stirring, continuing until chocolate is melted and smooth. Scrape the chocolate into a parchment paper cone, and snip a tiny piece off of the end. Drizzle the semisweet chocolate over all of the strawberries (if you don't have parchment paper, or don't know how to make a cone out of it, you can dip a spoon into the chocolate, and use that to drizzle the chocolate).