STUFFED CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES: Cheesecake Filling, Marscapone, Tiramasu,Cookie Dough

With Valentine's Day a week away, I thought I'd post one of my favorite recipes. I love Strawberries, and I think you can't get more romantic than Chocolate Covered Strawberries. This year, I'm suggesting you get even more imaginative and stuff the strawberries with something wonderful such as cheesecake filling, marscapone, tiramasu, or cookie dough!

I'm not offering any real directions on how to do this, but I have a few hints. Pick lovely whole plump strawberries. Wash them and pat dry with paper towels. Melt the chocolate (good quality) with a little cream or butter..or just chocolate.. see past recipes on this blog. Dip in the chocolate (3/4 way up) before stuffing and put chocolate covered strawberries on wax paper covered cookie sheet. Put in refrigerator for a few hours before cutting and stuffing. Of course, you don't have to dip them in chocolate. They're perfectly wonderful stuffed without.

Now for stuffing: Cut off the stem of strawberry and hollow out the inside. Take pastry bag or plastic bag with a corner cut out and pipe in the filling.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries: You can make regular cheesecake filling and add some crushed graham crackers for authenticity, or not. Straight Cheesecake filling is great, too! Make it easy on yourself, and buy something like Ready to Eat Cheesecake Filling or whip some cream cheese with a little vanilla and cream and sugar and sprinkle in some crushed grahams. No exact measurements. Tasting is the best judge! Be sure and leave enough time to chill the Cheesecake Filling before stuffing the finished Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

For the Cookie Dough Strawberries, follow the same procedure. You might want to dip these strawberries in milk chocolate and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips. I'm a dark chocolate fan, no matter what, but it's a suggestion!

Get Creative: For the Marscapone or Tiramasu fillings, follow the same directions as for Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries. Recently I used Bellweather Farms Ricotta... yum!

What fillings will you use?