Cheesecake-stuffed strawberries

I've basically set up this blog to join the Daring Bakers blogroll, but I'll also post randomly for other good creations I come across. I need to get around to buying a camera so I don't have to bum other peoples' every time I want to take a picture of a new dish. Anyways, I missed the April sign-ups for the Daring Bakers, but I thought I'd give a try at the challenge that month anyways - cheesecake pops.

The basic premise was to bake a New York style cheesecake, cool it, make 2-oz. spheres, and then dip them in chocolate or some other flavor, and decorate as desired. The cheesecake had to remain white, but all decorations and flavors could vary. Right away I thought of what my favorite combination was with cheesecake, and I couldn't pass up the thought of having cheesecake with strawberries, but how could I get the strawberry flavor into the pops without having the pink color? Then I decided I'd really try something different...cheesecake-stuffed strawberries.


The worst part about this was cutting open 2 lbs. of strawberries and monotonously carving their innards, trying to hollow them out as much as possible with a paring knife. The cheesecake ended up being a bit runny for me, but spooned some into a plastic bag, cut off a corner, and simply piped the cheesecake into the hollowed strawberries. After filling the strawberries, I put them in the freezer so the cheesecake would solidify, then melted some chocolate and set aside a bed of graham cracker crumbs. Once cool, I dipped the strawberries in the chocolate, rolled one end in the graham crackers, then set onto wax paper until hardened.

The strawberries didn't stay around too long at work, but I felt that the cheesecake just didn't taste right, and the ratio of cheesecake to strawberry was much too low. I'd be interested in playing around with this idea more in the future, but it'd be with some serious modifications.