Stuffed Strawberries Dipped in White Chocolate

Last weekend, David and I went to a great restaurant called Parkhouse Eatery.  We had gotten a gift certificate for Christmas, and as I had never heard of it before, I decided to visit the website to determine whether I needed reservations and if I needed to dress up to fit in.  I kind of snickered a little when I read the description, "casually elegant"- what does that even mean? (Rhetorical question) Surprisingly enough, the description actually fit the restaurant really well.  It was fancy and cozy at the same time, and the food was delicious.  I ordered steak wrapped in prosciutto with a pomegranate balsamic glaze and marscapone mashed potatoes.  David ate penne with smoked chicken, sundried tomatoes, and walnuts.  It was amazing.  We were going to share a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for dessert, but unfortunately, they were out.

I felt kind of bad, as David really likes white chocolate and cheesecake.  I didn't have the time or energy to make a cheesecake, so I decided to recreate the flavors of the cheesecake by stuffing some strawberries with a white chocolate cream cheese mixture and dipping them in white chocolate.  They were extremely tasty, and I may or may not have eaten half of the strawberries all by myself in the time span of 30 minutes.

Word to the wise: make sure that both the cream cheese and the melted chocolate are at room temperature before you try to combine them.  Otherwise, the temperature change will "shock" the chocolate, and it will re-harden.  Instead of having a white chocolate flavored cream cheese mixture, you'll have a cream cheese mixture with shards of white chocolate in it...which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just, you know, not the same.

Stuffed Strawberries Dipped in White Chocolate

1 pound strawberries
4 -6 ounces white chocolate

Stuffing
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Melt the 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring well between each interval.  Let cool completely.

Cream together the cream cheese and the powdered sugar.  Stir in the white chocolate until completely combined.  Transfer the cream cheese mixture into a piping bag (a ziploc bag with a corner snipped off would also work).

Melt the white chocolate for dipping.  While it is cooling, wash and dry the strawberries.  Cut off the top of each strawberry and hull them:  trace the white circle in the center of each strawberry with a paring knife and hollow out the strawberry.  Squeeze some of the cream cheese mixture into each strawberry.  Dip each strawberry into the white chocolate and place on a plate or tray lined with wax paper.  Chill in the fridge until the chocolate hardens, about two minutes.