Chocolate Strawberry Bombs

Don’t you just love when ideas work out?? This was my success for the day!

I saw a link recently on my blogroll for these cheesecake filled strawberries – Cheesecake Strawberries and I fell in love with how simple yet beautiful they looked. I was in love with the flavor combination idea. I know that this isn’t a new concept considering there’s plenty of fruit dips but this makes it simple and looks pretty on the table. I was put in charge of making the Easter menu for my family (shocking right?) and I wanted to do a different dessert rather than just cakes and cookies. I wanted something refreshing and made you think of Spring! Even though the Chicago weather is terribly confused right now I felt I can bring the Spring feeling in doors!

I decided I wanted to take the cheesecake filled strawberries a bit further. I wanted to dip them in chocolate and then have the tasty cheesecake filling inside as a special surprise! I looked online hoping for tips on making this work. To my surprise I could not find any postings for exactly what I was looking for. I’ll admit I got a bit nervous thinking if it isn’t out there – there’s a reason! But im stubborn…

Chocolate Strawberry Bombs

Strawberries, rinsed and dried (I bought a few packs to assure I got alot of big berries)
2 Packages dark chocolate chips
1 8oz package cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup white sugar
Splash of heavy cream
Graham Cracker Crumbs
Candy melts in desired color

Helpful equipment –

Double boiler
Piping bag
Rubber Spatula
Paring Knife
Silicone Pad
Patience

So first thing I knew I wanted to do was to hollow out the strawberry from the bottom. Theres tons of postings of cutting off from the top, which clearly makes more sense for making this task easier. I am never about the easy way because like I said, Im stubborn. I like having the leafy green part on the top! I cut off the bottom of strawberry and gently sliced in circle being careful to not break the berry..then when I was able to see the middle of the berry I put the knife in as far as I could and twisted. There were a few casualties but I bought more than enough berries.

Next I made the cheesecake filling. Combine the cream cheese, white sugar, and vanilla and beat on high. Add heavy cream until you get the desired texture which is a fairly thick frosting texture. Add the cream VERY SLOWLY you do not want a lot. I only did about 2 splashes, you definitely do not want this to be too thin or coating them in chocolate will be a pain! The mixture should be stiff enough to stand up on its own when its piped into the strawberries. Add mixture to a piping bag, no tip needed since nobody will see your pretty design inside.

I chilled the berries on a cookie sheet in the fridge to let it set a little bit before dipping them in chocolate. I hate working with chocolate since it’s so picky. I wanted to take any precautions to avoid making the chocolate seize up on me. I don’t know if this helped, but in my mind it did! You are more than welcome to skip this!

Using a double boiler, I melted the dark chocolate chips. I only did one bag at a time just incase I had to start over if the chocolate got all lumpy and weird on me. I am glad I did this…because it did…

I dipped each berry in to the stem and wiped the excess chocolate off to avoid getting a “foot” on the bottom of the berry. I then dipped only the bottom of the strawberry in graham cracker crumbs and set them on a sheet pan with a silicone pad. Once they dried I used pink candy melted and decorated them.