Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Strawberries

Ingredients:

400 g punnet of strawberries as even in size as possible
100 g cream cheese
1 – 2 Tbsp sifted icing (confectioner’s) sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract. or paste
70 g of dark or semi sweet chocolate
4 – 5 digestive biscuits or graham crackers

Cooking Instructions:

Place the biscuits in a sandwich bag and crush to fine crumbs with a rolling pin or the bottom of a glass. Place the crumbs in a small bowl and set aside.
Blend the cream cheese with 1 tablespoon of the sifted icing sugar and the vanilla – taste and add more sugar if it’s not sweet enough. Taste your strawberries too – you don’t want an overly sweent stuffing if the berries are very sweet.
Fit a large holed nozzle onto a piping bag and fill the bag with the cream cheese mixture. Or fill a sandwich bag with the cream cheese – you can snip off a small bit of the corner when you are ready to stuff the strawberries. Place the bag in the fridge while you get on with the strawberries.
Rinse the strawberries and set aside any that have mushy spots. You can trim those and save them for smoothies, fruit salads etc.
Using a small paring knife, slice off the strawberry hull or calyx – the leaves.
Then, using the tip of the paring knife, hollow out from the base by twisting the knife around in a conical circle.
Place the strawberries on a paper towel lined tray to drain.
Once they are all hulled and hollowed out, pat the tops of the fruit with another paper towel to dry the surfaces.
Fill the strawberries with the cream cheese, using the piping or sandwich bag to fill the fruit neatly.
Either melt the chocolate (in a small bowl) on a low setting in the microwave for 30 second intervals or in a double boiler set-up (a pan of simmering water with the bowl of chocolate set on top but not touching the water). The chocolate should be just melted.
Using a pickle fork or a toothpick or even your fingers if the strawberries are large enough to hold, dip the ends in the chocolate and then in the crumbs.
Set on a tray and pop into the fridge for the chocolate to firm up.
These are best enjoyed at room temperature so take them out at least half an hour before serving. If transporting for picnic then place in a suitable container, packing an icepack underneath the container.