Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Strawberries

The process is, honestly, fairly simple. Just a little time consuming.

1) In a medium bowl beat cream cheese, vanilla & powdered sugar until smooth; set aside.

In a separate, microwave safe dish melt butter. Stir in the crushed vanilla wafers (or graham crackers – whatever you fancy) until all are moist. Carefully add buttery crumbs to the cream cheese filling mixture. Place filling in the fridge while you prep the strawberries.

2) Be sure to thoroughly rinse all strawberries. You want the biggest you can find with pretty tops. My green tops were a little sad but workable. Keep the tops attached, you can always remove them later, but for now they will serve as a nice little ‘handle.’ Pat dry.

3) Carefully cut an X in the bottom of the strawberry, about an inch down. Gently pry the bottom apart. Strawberries have a slight hollow area in the middle & you want to make sure to find it – I kinda stuck my finger or a chopstick down to open the area more. As you work, place them on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet.

4) Now, you can start the stuffing. Slowly add the filling into the strawberry, bit by bit with a spoon. If you have an icing tip with a large opening, piping it in would be easier. Once thoroughly ‘stuffed’ clean up the outside; it needs to be as smooth as possible. You don’t want awkward chunks of wafer sticking out… just wouldn’t look pretty with the chocolate.

5) Place stuffed strawberries in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This allows the filling to harden slightly, so it doesn’t get melted by your chocolate.

6) Be very very careful with your chocolate. It is easy to scorch, burn or even worse… make it separate. {shudder!} Melt 1/2 block white chocolate Almond Bark – broken into smallish bits – in a glass measuring cup. Microwave in 45 second increments, stirring each time, until melted & smooth.

7) Holding on to the green top, dunk your strawberry into the melted chocolate. Be careful to leave some pretty red at the top!

8 ) Don’t be too trusting with the green top though; it may break on you. So have a fork or toothpicks handy. I used the back of a spoon to smooth out the chocolate & remove any excess. Then place the berry back on waxed paper. The chocolate will begin to set immediately.

9) Next is the really fun part! Decor! Melt one, single square of chocolate (I used a single square out of a package of milk chocolate Almond Bark) and pour into a plastic baggie. Remove the absolute smallest amount of the tip of the bag as possible… if you want small lines of chocolate. Then have fun! I made little tuxedos, tried a girly dress with pearls, added bows- use your imagination! Use the strawberries to spell out “I” “HEART” “U” or your sweethearts name.

10) Once thoroughly decked out, stick the sweet bites back in the fridge to set up completely. Then devour. Eat as many as fast as you can!!