In honor of National Pick Strawberries Day (really that’s a thing!), today we’re going to share our Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries recipe.  There are a lot of choices on a day when your goal is to celebrate strawberries; We love homemade strawberry ice cream, strawberry rhubarb crisp, and just about any dessert topped with strawberries.  But in the end we decided on a treat where strawberries would truly play the lead…Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries! We love cheesecake and strawberries and cheesecake make a great marriage of ingredients. Plus, it’s way easier then actually making a whole cheesecake. And probably less dangerous as a few strawberry cheesecake bites might get me into less trouble on the scale then 2 huge slices of cheesecake (or maybe 3?). 🙂 Read on for the easy instructions on how to make cheesecake stuffed strawberries.

How to make Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

The Cheesecake Filling

I think the biggest hurdle here is not being sure how to make the filling. Not to worry, it’s just 3 simple ingredients…

Cream cheese, lemon juice, and powdered sugar, that’s it! Just beat the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and then slowing mix in lemon juice and the powdered sugar. We sift the powdered sugar to make sure the filling is extra creamy with no lumps, but this is really a judgement call on your part. If the powdered sugar seems fine with no clumps, then maybe you decide to skip that step.

Whip it, whip it good!

Okay, you’ve got your filling, but now how do you get it into a strawberry?

Hulling a Strawberry

The first step is hulling your strawberry. The strawberry hull is just that green part on the top, close to the stem. You can buy fancy strawberry hullers for this, but we wouldn’t recommend that as it’s super easy to do.  You can hull a strawberry with a paring knife or even a straw! You’re also looking to make room for your filling, but remember to preserve as much of the strawberry as you can. The strawberry is the star, the rest of the ingredients are there in support. In other words, if you’ve got Meryl Streep on set, don’t put her in charge of the cue cards….let her act!

They’re looking ready to be stuffed!

The next thing we do is cut a very small amount off the bottom of the strawberry so that it’s flat and the strawberry will stand up. Now, let’s stuff this baby!

Load your filling into a piping bag…or you can just put it in a ziplock back and cut a small triangle off one of the corners to make your own piping bag. We used a Wilton IM tip while doing these strawberries (see below and see this important note ) just so we could get a little bit more fancy.

The stuffing phase is the fun part. Get creative. Get artsy. We love the look of these chocolate covered strawberries from Kevin and Amanda. Whatever works for you. This is also a good time to come up with that final topping that is going to make your cheesecake stuffed strawberry a truly magical creation. One quick tip: We try to keep as many of the strawberries as we can refrigerated to keep them as fresh as possible. We like to work in small batches at a time, cycling things in and out of the refrigerator as needed.

Okay, how about we finish this off with a topping?

For our strawberries, we decided the finishing element would be nutella. Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries with Nutella Drizzle…yes…yes, I do believe we have a winner!

If you’re looking for a little more inspiration, then check out these 19 ways to stuff a strawberry.

Final Thoughts

If you’re like us, then maybe you’re thinking “how can I grow my own strawberries?”. If that’s the case then here are a few helpful links to get you started:

http://wholelifestylenutrition.com/gardening/follow-this-one-tip-in-garden-get-ton-organic-strawberries/

http://strawberryplants.org/2011/04/strawberry-planting-guide/

Okay, on to the recipe:

Strawberry Cheesecake Bites with Nutella Drizzle

Print Rate

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 2 lbs . strawberries
• 1 8 oz . pkg cream cheese , room temp.
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp . lemon zest
• 1/2 c . powdered sugar
• Nutella or chocolate

Instructions

• Remove stem of strawberries, wash, and set to dry on a towel.
• In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese.
• Add lemon juice and sift sugar into beaten cream cheese.
• Mix until smooth and blended.
• Put cream cheese mixture into piping bag with tip (or ziploc bag). I used a Wilton's 1M tip. Refrigerate while prepping berries.
• Cut off a small part of the bottom of the strawberry to create a flat surface to sit on and remove white inside to make room for cream cheese filling.
• Pipe cream cheese into strawberries.
• Melt nutella in microwave for about 20 seconds depending on the strength of your microwave.
• Scrape nutella into a baggie.
• Cut a small corner off the baggie and drizzle over strawberries.