It’s almost Valentines Day! Here in Southern California, it’s also the start of strawberry season. Coincidence? I think not! Last week at Farmers Market, I came across HUGE strawberries. Aren’t they stunning?
I had been looking for new dessert ideas and had seen different posts on Facebook and Pintrest about chocolate-covered strawberries with cheesecake filling. Cheesecake is one of our favorite desserts. Really, how can you go wrong with anything that has both chocolate AND cheesecake in the title? With so many beautiful berries and a love of chocolate, it was a perfect match!
These are easy to make too!
Slice the tops off the berries…
and carefully hollow out the center…
I used a sharp paring knife to do this, but I’m sure a strawberry huller would work well too.
Now for the filling! If you search for these, you’ll find several variations from Philadelphia Cheesecake filling (which I could NOT find anywhere) to plain cream cheese or even cheesecake flavored yogurt. I can’t imagine the yogurt holding up well so I went with something a little sweeter!
I used 2 packages of cream cheese, softened to room temperature, 1/3 cup powdered sugar, 2 tsp pure vanilla extract and 1 tsp fresh lemon zest.
Fill a plastic sandwich bag with the cream cheese mixture. Cut off a small corner of the bag so you can use it to fill the strawberries.
See? Easy!
But I think I may have made too many…. :-)
It’s ok, some of them were sacrificed in the name of “Taste Testing.” You know, to be sure the filling tasted right… :-)
While I melted the chocolate, the berries went into the refrigerator to set. Once the chocolate was melted, I started dipping! It was simple to do. I just grabbed the top of the berries, dipped them in chocolate, then set them on wax paper. It was a bit challenging because I didn’t like how some of them had “finger tip prints” from where I was holding them…
They weren’t all dipped perfectly straight…
That’s ok though! It’s an Imperfect Kitchen and I got over it as soon as I tasted one. They are delicious!!
Try these Chocolate Covered Strawberries with Cheesecake Filling yourself for Valentines Day, or any special occasion where you need a quick and easy (but amazing looking) treat! Enjoy!
Much Love,
Sara~
could you dip the whole thing in chocolate and or maybe use white chocolate on the top half.would that make it last longer,because it seals it in?
Hi! I’ve honestly never tried it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Chocolate covered strawberries tend not to last too long anyway. I’d recommend eating them within a day or two of making them. Good luck!!
I swear I could hear angels sing while I drooled over this!
Total heaven…just great stuff!!
i HAVE to try these….soon too! ;)
The look fab! Great idea. :)