One of my daughters turned ten last week. She is a girl of sophisticated tastes, so here’s a treat we came up with together: cookies topped with cheesecake dip topped with chocolate-covered strawberries. Why? Because I’m not pregnant, and actually have a bit of energy for nonsense like this!
We made 36 strawberry bites*, and is a nice little, no-bake, kid-friendly, cheer-you-up project (or would have been, if I hadn’t been so crabby from trying to cut down on sugar after a week-long binge) that requires almost no cooking skill.
When working in the kitchen with kids, I recommend deciding ahead of time if your main goal is to end up with tasty, attractive food, or to let the kids have fun. They do not go together. You have to pick one or the other. In this case, I did part myself, and didn’t let the kids help, and then turned the kitchen over to them, went in the other room, and plugged my ears.
*I’m sorry, I hate that word “bite” to describe a food. It shows a lack of respect for the parts of speech, and the vagueness of it makes it sound like there is something to hide. But I don’t know what else to call these food items, other than maybe “treats” or “desserts.” And I do recommend biting them, so there.
You will need:
36 sandwich cookies (like Oreos) – or brownies, or graham cracker crust, or phyllo dough, or whatever you want
3 packages of cream cheese
10 oz. sour cream
confectioner’s sugar to taste (1/2 cup or more)
2 tsp. vanilla
36 strawberries
16 oz semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tbs shortening
Chocolate-covered strawberries:
Cover a pan with wax paper.
Wash the strawberries and dry them thoroughly (the chocolate won’t stick to wet things).
In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and the shortening, and stir until it’s smooth. You can use just chocolate, but the shortening makes the chocolate smoother, and it dries harder.
Dip each strawberry in the melted chocolate and set them on the wax paper-covered pans.
Chill strawberries for 20 minutes or more until the chocolate is hardened.
Cream cheese topping:
Using an electric mixer, blend together the cream cheese, sour cream, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
Then:
Put cookies in cupcake papers, and put a dollop of cream cheese mixture on top of each cookie. Top each one with a chocolate-covered strawberry.
And just like that, you have a Wednesday post. These would actually work well for a Valentine’s day treat, too.
And today we celebrate...