Recipe of the Day: White-Chocolate-Marscapone-Stuffed Strawberries

 These little gems are one of my favorite tea party desserts to serve because they're as decadent as they are flashy.  (They're also simple to make with only 3 ingredients.) Be forewarned, if you put these little darlings on your tea table, it's best to have a lot of them. Cuz one per guests is just not enough!


Ingredients:
4oz white chocolate chips
8oz marscapone cheese, at room temperature
20 large strawberries, rinsed
1-2 tsp of coconut or vegetable oil to thin chocolate, if necessary

Procedure:

• Put a small saucepan filled 3/4 with water on the stove and bring to a boil.

• Once the water is boiling, put a small glass or heat-resistant metal bowl over the top of the water to create a simple double-boiler effect.

• Once the bowl is hot, add the white chocolate chips, one ounce at a time, stirring constantly. If the melting chip mixture is too dry, add in some oil as you stir, a few drops at a time until you have a smooth but not runny consistency.

• Remove melted chocolate from heat and transfer to an electric mixer bowl.

• Add marscapone cheese to the chocolate and beat the filling on medium speed until well-combined.

• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the filling for a minimum of 4 hours, but no more than a couple days. I find it easiest to make the filling the night before a tea party and then pull it out of the fridge in the morning, so it has time to soften to a consistency I can pipe through a pastry bag.

• Once softened, spoon some of the white chocolate filling into a pastry bag fitted with the decorator tip of your choice, or if you prefer an easy and disposable solution, use a quart-size ziplock baggie and snip one of the corners (be sure to add the filling first!). Set the prepared filling aside.

• Place one strawberry on a cutting board, with the green stem facing down and using a small paring knife, cut an X in the top of each berry, being careful not to cut all the way through the berry.

• Gently pull apart the 4 sections of the berry and pipe the white chocolate filling inside until the berry is visibly stuffed with sweet, delicious  chocolate goodness.  Repeat with remaining berries and serve immediately. (These will do just fine if left on a buffet table for a bit while you visit with your guests.)

Recipe serves 10-ish.

 **Original recipe courtesy of the March/April 2012 issue of Tea Time Magazine.**