Chocolate Covered Stuffed Strawberries: Marscapone, Cookie Dough, Cheesecake, & More

With Valentine's Day less than a week away, I thought I'd re-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! Yes, 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. 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?

Chocolate Valentine's Day PEEPS!

I know you can buy all kinds of fabulous chocolates for Valentine's Day. I have a whole lot of favorites, but just thought I'd lighten it up with Valentine's Day 'chocolate' offerings from PEEPS®. 

I've blogged about PEEPS before, and I love that they've expanded their line to include many holidays besides Easter. The Valentine's Day PEEPS are great.

A few ways to enjoy PEEPS for Valentine's Day!

Eat them the way they are.
Put them in your cocoa or coffee.
Decorate your Valentine's Day presents with them.
Skewer a few Raspberry Hearts and tie it to a gift of Cocoa in a Jar!
Create a diorama using PEEPS!
Stuff a Chocolate Raspberry Heart between two graham crackers, and you have Valentine's Day PEEPS S'mores.
And, you can Place a Valentine's Day Peep in a cellophane bag, tie with a ribbon, and have the kids give these as Valentine's Day cards.
PEEPS are so versatile.

This season there are Valentine's Day fluffy, cherry flavored marshmallow hearts dipped in and drizzled with chocolate, Strawberry Creme flavored Chicks sitting on a bed of chocolate, and there's even a Chocolate-covered Raspberry Heart. Of course there are other non-chocolate PEEPS' hearts that you can dip yourself in some great dark or milk chocolate.

The PEEPS® pictured here:

Milk Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Crème Flavored Chicks
Milk Chocolate Covered Raspberry Heart
Chocolate Dipped Marshmallow Cherries Drizzled in Chocolate. .

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

No-Bake Double Chocolate Cherry Tart

Photo: Taza Chocolate

This No-Bake Double Chocolate Cherry Tart is an all-time showstopper! It's easy and delicious. Make it for Valentine's Day or any time! Recipe is from Taza, my go-to chocolate (Taza 70% Mexicano is always in my desk). My local market has fresh cherries all year round, but if you're a locavore, you can substitute fresh raspberries or strawberries.

NO-BAKE CHOCOLATE CHERRY TART
Makes 1 – 11 inch tart 

Ingredients
30 Oreos or other sandwich cookies
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1 1/2 pints heavy cream
4  Taza 60% Dominican Stone Ground Chocolate bars, chopped (plus additional to melt for drizzling if desired)
1 pound cherries, pitted

Directions

Crust:
Process cookies in food processor until fine crumb.
Place in bowl and drizzle melted butter over them, and stir to combine.
Press into 11 inch tart pan and put in refrigerator to cool.

Tart Filling:
Combine heavy cream and chocolate in small saucepan over medium-low heat and stir occasionally until fully incorporated. Allow to cool slightly then pour into crust.
Place pitted cherries on top of tart and let sit for 2 hours, or overnight.
Drizzle with additional melted chocolate if desired.

How easy is that?

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Cherry Port Heart-Shaped Brownies for Valentine's Day

Here's a great brownie recipe for Valentine's Day--Cherry Port Brownies. Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens. Want to make these special? Use a 3" heart-shaped cookie cutter to make Brownie Hearts. The photo is from Betty Crocker, and their recipe uses the Betty Crocker Brownie Mix. That's a big shortcut. It's up to you. You can always use the mix and add some dried cherries soaked in port. Another festive touch is to sprinkle with powdered cocoa or red crystallized sugar or drizzle with red icing after the brownies have cooled.

CHERRY PORT HEART-SHAPED BROWNIES

Ingredients
2 Tbsp port
1/2 cup dried cherries
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs, cold
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 1/2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (about 3/4 cup)

Directions 
Position oven rack in center of oven; preheat to 325 degrees F.
Line 8x8x2-inch pan with foil. Butter foil; set aside.
In small saucepan, bring port and water to boiling. Add dried cherries; cook and stir over low heat until fruit is soft and plump and liquid evaporates. Using spatula, scrape cherries into bowl; set aside to cool.
Set heatproof bowl over saucepan of barely simmering water (be sure water doesn't touch bottom of bowl). Place butter in bowl; scatter 6 ounces chocolate over butter. Heat until chocolate is almost melted (you do not want to heat the mixture so much that the butter and chocolate separate). Remove bowl from heat. Stir until butter and chocolate are smooth. Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated. Add eggs one at a time, stirring until batter is smooth and glossy. Whisk in salt. Gently whisk in flour, stirring only until it disappears into the batter.
Using spatula, stir in port-soaked cherries (and any liquid that accumulated) and remaining 4 1/2 oz. chopped chocolate.
Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top as much as possible.
Bake 35 minutes.
Transfer pan to wire rack; cool to room temperature.
Invert brownies onto cutting board; gently peel away foil
Turn brownies over. Cut into squares or use 3" heart shaped cookie cutter.