Quick and Easy Cream Cheesy and Chocolaty Desserts

Need a dessert or treat in a hurry?  Here are two easy desserts that turned out to be a big hit!

Here’s what you need for the first one:

•          2 lbs fresh strawberries

•          Pre-made cheese cake filling*

•          Graham crackers crumbs

•          Chocolate chips

Here’s what you do:

1.  Wash the berries and remove the tops with a huller, leaving a cavity in the berry.

2. Put the cheesecake filling in a dessert filler and squeeze filling into each berry to just past the top.  If you don’t have a dessert filler, you should get one; they’re awesome.  But in the mean time, just put the filling in a zip lock bag and snip off the corner.

3.  After all the berries are filled, pour about 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs into a bowl.  Dip the filled end of each berry in the crumbs and set aside on a parchment covered baking sheet.

4.  Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave with a teaspoon or so of shortening.  I usually do it 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between until they’re just melted.  Don’t overheat!

5.  Using a fork, drizzle chocolate over the berries until they look fancy.

6.  Chill in the refrigerator until filling and chocolate are firm.

Ta Da!  Strawberry Cheesecake Bites!

*If you can’t find this, or would rather make the filling from scratch, whip together the following:

3 Cups confectioners’ sugar, ½ cup softened butter, 8 oz softened cream cheese, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract.

After admiring the beauty of the stuffed berries, and the speed with which they were done, we noticed there was a lot of leftover melted chocolate.  What to do?  Make a second dessert!

I looked in the pantry thinking maybe there were some pretzels or cookies we could dip, but all I found was a half full bag of marshmallows that were on the verge of getting hard.  Marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate…..The light bulb went on! 

Here’s what you need:

•          Marshmallows (They don’t have to be stale, but it’s ok if they are!)

•          Chocolate chips (or leftover chocolate from above)

•          Graham Cracker Crumbs (also leftover from above)

•          Cute sprinkles

Here’s what you do:

1.  Take a short skewer or sucker stick and jam a marshmallow onto it.

2.  Dip each one in chocolate (melted as described above) about three quarters of the way up.

3.  Dip the bottom (now covered in chocolate) in the bowl of graham cracker crumbs about ¼ of the way up and place on a parchment or wax paper covered baking sheet.

4.  Sprinkle the remaining chocolate covered sides with nonpareils (aka cute sprinkles).

S’more Pops!  A lot of people at our little dinner party liked these better than the strawberries.  My aunt said she liked them because they tasted like a Charleston Chew.

I love happy accidents!