Cheesecake stuffed strawberries!

After failing at fruit leather and fudge truffle cheesecake (I may or may not share those stories- sooooo not proud of the outcomes), I decided to go super easy for the 4th.  My husband was grilling, so the only thing I was in charge of was dessert.  I decided on some cheese cake stuffed strawberries that I had seen on a blog.  It was probably Food Gawker, but I can't guarantee that.  I figured that with no actual cooking they'd be pretty hard to screw up and I was right!  They're easy, pretty quick, and delicious.  So here's the recipe:

1 pound of strawberries (you could actually probably use a little more than this, but I only had a pound, so that's what I used)
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
about 1/2 a sleeve of graham crackers
some kind of chocolate (I used one square of milk chocolate almond bark, but you could also use candy melts or melted chocolate chips)


First, wash your strawberries, cut off the tops, and cut  out the centers.  I used a small paring knife and it did an okay job, although not as great as I would have wanted.

Beat the softened cream cheese in a bowl with your mixer until it's soft and creamy.  I forgot to take a picture, so this is what it looked like after I added the powdered sugar for the next step.

Add in sugar and vanilla and beat until creamy and well mixed.

Add cheesecake filling to a piping bag, plastic bag with the tip cut off, or, something like I use- a Pampered Chef easy accent decorator (courtesy of my mother who bought it and had no clue how to use it :D ).

Pipe the mixture into the strawberries, and feel free to be really generous with it.

Place graham crackers into a food processor (or stick them in a plastic bag and beat them with a hammer) until they're fine crumbs.

Dip the tops of the strawberries into the graham cracker crumbs so the cheesecake part is covered.

Melt your chocolate and scrape it into a plastic bag and cut the corner off.  Make sure you only cut a tiny piece or else your chocolate drizzles will be really thick.  I mean, if you're into that kind of thing, then cut the corner hole as big as you want, but I think it looks nicer with tiny drizzles.  Also, this is a really cool tip I learned recently.  Put the bag in a cup and fold the top around the sides before you put the melted chocolate in.  This made it SO much easier.  I can't believe all the times I made Josh get off the couch to hold the bag for me when I had everything I needed to do it myself right in my cabinet!

Drizzle the chocolate over the strawberries, let it get hard again in the fridge for a few minutes, and then transfer to a plate to serve!

These were a huge hit, and I was so glad.  I highly recommend making them anytime you need a quick, tasty dessert.

And just because she's adorable, a picture of Clementine from that day (Josh was so sick of taking pictures):