It’s Never Too Much Cheesecake (Strawberry Cheesecake Truffles)

Strawberry season is winding to a close, so you’d better go out and get some strawberries and make these ASAP.  Also because they’re delicious.  And because they keep well in the refrigerator (or even freezer), so you can make them well in advance of the day you intend to serve them and then pull them out of the freezer and be all, “Yeah, Martha Stewart ain’t got nothin’ on me.”  Or something.

We made pretty lines on some of them, which you can sort of see in this here photo below, but we didn’t do it all at once, and I vaguely remember finding it super frustrating.  I did not use the Ziploc bag method described below – I wish I had!  I think that was also at the low point after the sugar high that was our August cooking extravaganza.   Whatever, the pretty stuff is not crucial to the taste.

Strawberry Cheesecake Truffles

Adapted from Annie’s Eats

• 8 oz cream cheese, well softened
• 1 1/8 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• Dash of vanilla extract
• 6 TBSP finely chopped strawberries (measure after chopping)
• 16 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• Melted white chocolate and milk chocolate, for decorating (optional)

Put the cream cheese, graham cracker crumbs, and confectioners’ sugar in a medium or large bowl.  Mix until smooth.  Add the dash of vanilla extract and mix well.

Add in the strawberries and fold the mixture until the strawberries are thoroughly incorporated.

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until the mixture is firm.

One by one, make balls from the mixture.  Start by scooping out 2 teaspoons of the mixture (a very scant tablespoon, so you can use that to measure).  Roll into a ball and place it on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper.  Repeat until you’re done with all of the filling or have filled a baking sheet (in which case you’ll have to work in batches).

Place the yumminess-filled baking sheet to the freezer.  Chill until those puppies are rock-hard.

Once the balls of yumminess are firm, prepare the coating – leave the balls in the freezer while you do this, particularly if you’re making these in a hot apartment (not that we ever cook in apartments that are so hot because of oven use that we sweat like pigs . . . or anything).

Melt the roughly chopped chocolate in a double boiler (or use the faux double boiler method, setting a heatproof glass or metal bowl over a pan of simmering water).  Stir constantly.  When the chocolate is fully melted, remove from heat.  Using a fork or sturdy spoon, drop the frozen balls in the chocolate one by one (okay, or two or three at a time).  Lift the balls from the chocolate, gently tapping the spoon or fork against the side of the pan to remove any excess chocolate.

After each ball is coated in chocolate, return it to the baking sheet.  If any serious puddles of melted chocolate form, wipe them away with paper towels.

If you want to make them super fancy, you can drizzle them with chocolate.  Melt milk chocolate and white chocolate, and tint some of the white chocolate pink with red food dye (liquid works better than gel, in my experience).  Transfer each set of melted chocolate to a Ziploc bag with a tiny hole cut out and drizzle the chocolate in zig-zag patterns over the truffles.  You can try and drizzle them free-style with a spoon, but I sucked at this.

Return the baking sheet to the fridge to allow the chocolate to re-harden.  Store the truffles in the fridge until ready to serve or flash-freeze the truffles on a baking sheet, then store in a bag or tupperware dish in the freezer.