Jana's Strawberries

Around Valentine's Day my friend Jana posted on her blog that she had a stomach bug and wasn't sure if she would be able to make her husband his favorite cheesecake stuffed chocolate covered strawberries. She said it so nonchalantly that I remarked in her comments that it should have been CHEESECAKE..... STUFFED..... CHOCOLATE..... COVERED..... STRAWBERRIES!!!! In the end she made them for Ryan and was kind enough to post the recipe on her blog. When I got home from Walmart today I noticed that "someone" had mysteriously put both strawberries and cheesecake filling in my cart! And well, since I had chocolate candy disks anyway, I thought I would give them a whirl. I am a little lazier than Jana so I went with ready made filling instead of creating my own, but the deliciousness will be the same I am sure.

Jana's Strawberries

Gather your ingredients together. Make sure your strawberries are the big fat ones so you will have some empty space inside to fill with cheesecake goodness.

Cut a notch in the bottom of each strawberry. You may need to twist your knife in the cavity a bit to widen it some.

Then fill one of the ten million medicine syringes we have accumulated in the last few months with cheesecake filling. This was actually the hardest part. I am sure there is an easier way to fill the syringe, but I didn't think of one and I was in too much of a hurry to wait! Squirt the filling into the hollow cavity of the strawberry.

Then put the plug back in and no one will be the wiser!
Since my willpower was fading fast and I was about to eat the whole tub of filling without waiting for strawberries there were a few undersized strawberries in my carton, I thought I would try hollowing one out from the top and tasting it, just for fun.

After melting your chocolate and dipping the berries you will have something like this (below). You will more than likely lose a plug or two but don't panic. Just fish it out and shove it back in place. As the chocolate hardens it will keep the plug there. They may be a little bit uglier, but trust me, no one is going to refuse to eat these due to a bump here or there. Also, more than likely no one will look at them too closely in the frenzy to put it in their mouths as soon as humany possible. Besides, the ugly ones have half the calories, right? RIGHT?

Now, if you have had a great helper for this treat, like I did (by helping here I mean staying-out-the-kitchen-and-out-of-the-way-until-I-call-you) feel free to reward her with a taste of the leftover chocolate!