Favorite Baby Shower Food: Stuffed Strawberries
June 8th, 2010 by Expert Experts
It’s strawberry season! Hooray! I’m a big fan of berries, and I think strawberries top my list (particularly if they’re involved in some sort of shortcake/whipped cream concoction…). They’re so versatile—they can be incorporated into everything from a yummy spinach salad to creamy strawberry soup to sparkling beverages to a simple dip in chocolate. If you’re hosting a baby shower this summer, be sure to incorporate this delicious fruit into your menu…even if it’s just by offering a bowl of fresh juicy whole berries.
This delicious recipe is a perfect way to showcase the gorgeous strawberries to be found this time of year. A take on strawberry cheese cake, these “one-bite” morsels are pretty much perfect as is…or you can gild the lily (highly recommended) by dusting the filled berries with graham cracker crumbs or grated dark chocolate. Or dip them in chocolate! Or place them on small baked rounds of delicate puff pastry! Or…you get the picture.
Stuffed Strawberries
1 pint fresh strawberries
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract (or almond extract)
Wash strawberries well and lay them out to dry. Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients with a mixer or a food processor until its smooth. Place it either into a piping bag with a large tip (a star tip is pretty!) or into a plastic sandwich bag with the corner cut off. Refrigerate the filling while you prepare the strawberries.
To assemble, cut the tops off your strawberries so you can stand them upright on the cut side. (Alternately, if your strawberries have pretty stems and leaves, or if you plan to dip them, leave the tops on and just lay them on their sides after they’ve been filled.) To open up the inside of the strawberries for filling, cut either a small wedge shape out of the tip of each berry, or make two intersecting (criss-cross) cuts from the tip to about ¾ of the way toward the now-bottom of the berry and gently fan the sections out a bit to create a pocket for the filling. Squeeze some filling into each strawberry, ending with a pretty dollop on top of the berry, and place them on a platter.
Cut berries tend to weep a bit of juice, so if you’d like to fill them way ahead of time, I’d suggest storing them in a paper towel-lined cake pan and then transferring them to your platter when you’re ready to serve them.
Enjoy!
Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger
