Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

These strawberry cheesecake bites have a secret: They're filled with a subtly sweet mixture that tastes just like cheesecake, but are way quicker and easier to make than a traditional strawberry cheesecake. These bites are a clever way to enjoy those gorgeous, giant strawberries that appear in our markets each spring. No baking is required, and there's just a little thinking ahead needed since the cream cheese needs to be softened for it to be easy to work with.

Learn how to make strawberry cheesecake bites, and enjoy serving these to friends and family as an impressive dessert that doesn't require a lot of time and effort.

Why You'll Love These No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

This dessert takes advantage of fresh strawberries and couldn't be easier to make. There's no baking required, and minimal clean-up is involved. Most ingredients are probably already in your pantry or fridge, and the only sort of "fancy" part is optional.

The strawberry cheesecake bites are a showstopper with or without the optional white chocolate dip. Just don't forget the graham cracker crumbs! They add texture, crunch, and a nice color contrast to the red strawberries and pale white filling.

Ingredients for Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

Strawberry cheesecake bites are not only delicious, they're also easy to make. The recipe requires minimal prep and few ingredients, many of which you may already have on hand.

• Fresh strawberries: About 1 1/2 pounds, which ends up being roughly 24 whole strawberries from two standard strawberry containers.
• Cream cheese: Softened in advance, for the filling.
• Sour cream: Creme fraîche or mascarpone cheese would work. It adds the tang you love from a cheesecake and makes the mixture easier to pipe.
• Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and thickens up the filling.
• Lemon juice: Adds brightness to the filling.
• Vanilla: To elevate all the flavors.
• White chocolate: Melted, the white chocolate adds a nice glossy coating to the strawberries.
• Graham crackers: Crushed into crumbs and sprinkled on top just before serving for a nice bit of crunch.

How To Make Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

If you plan ahead for an extra hour, these cheesecake bites will be ready for dinner. Here's a brief outline of the process; the full recipe is below:

• Step 1. Prepare the strawberries: Cut the stems from your strawberries, and use a melon baller or parking knife to remove the strawberries' cores.
• Step 2. Make the filling: In a bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla with an electric mixer until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
• Step 3. Fill the strawberries: Grab either a pastry bag (a star tip makes it extra pretty but is not necessary) or a repurpose a plastic freezer bag. Simply spoon the filling into a zip-top plastic freezer bag, and without sealing it, snip a hole in one of the corners. Pipe the cheesecake mixture into the strawberries.
• Step 4. Dip in chocolate: If you want, you can melt white chocolate, and dip the bottoms of each strawberry into the white chocolate. Let excess drip off.
• Step 5. Chill: These strawberry cheesecake bites, whether you dip them in chocolate or not, need about an hour to set so the filling can firm up.

How To Prepare Strawberries

When it comes to cleaning strawberries, there are just a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Using a colander, gently place whole strawberries in the base, and rinse with cold water from the tap for a few minutes.
• If you notice any dirt that's not coming loose from the cold water rinse, use your fingers to rub dirt specks gently until they loosen.
• Remove strawberries from the colander—a paper-towel lined baking sheet works well—and pat dry.

When To Clean Strawberries

Whatever method you choose, wash the strawberries just before coring and hollowing them out. Why? Cleaning porous fruit like strawberries ahead of time can make them mushy and even moldy. The excess water on the surface of the berry causes it to break down quickly.

Can You Prepare Strawberry Cheesecake Bites in Advance?

Preparing the tray of bites one night before you plan to serve them is OK, but these are best eaten the day they're made. And if you do decide to prepare the cheesecake bites in advance, don't add the crushed graham cracker crumbs until just before serving if you want to avoid soggy cracker pieces.

Editorial contributions by Stacey Lastoe.