More Strawberries

Chocolate Cream Cheese Strawberry Pie

3 squares (1 oz each) semisweet chocolate, divided
1 tablespoon butter
1 9” pastry shell, baked
2 3 oz packages cream cheese, softened
½ cup sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3-4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled
1/3 cup strawberry jam, melted

To melt chocolate; in a glass jar or cup place 2 ounces chopped chocolate and butter, set glass into pan of hot water, stir chocolate and butter until smooth. Spread or brush chocolate mixture over the bottom and up the sides of the pastry shell. Chill.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread the cream cheese mixture over chocolate layer; cover and chill for 2 hours.

Arrange strawberries, tip end up, over the filling. Brush strawberry jam over the fruit. Melt remaining chocolate and drizzle over all.
This got two thumbs up from the husband. It's really good, and as I said before I prefer the chocolate in this recipe over the chocolate in the previous recipe. I do have to add that I prefer the strawberry/water puree from the other recipe as a glaze. Using jam seems like cheating to me for some reason. But that's just my preference.

Ellen, the 3 yr old, loved helping with this recipe, especially licking the spoon after I'd melted and brushed the crust with the chocolate. But she also loved helping glaze the berries.

Strawberries

This one will be familiar to those who read my other blog, but I figured there's no rules here for reposting from blog to blog. I got this recipe this year from a different blogger, The Lumberjack's Wife. It's easy and fun for kids to help with.

Chocolate-lined Strawberry Pie

Ingredients:
Graham cracker crust
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips(ish)
2 tblsp butter(or so)
1/4 cup whipping cream(about)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup(give or take a little)
8 cups strawberries(or more if ya want), stems removed
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Now, for the directions:

Melt chocolate pieces and butter over low heat;set aside.

In a heavy saucepan stir together whipping cream and corn syrup. Bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat; gradually stir into choc mixture. Cool to room temp. Spread cooled choc mixture over the bottom and sides of the crust; set aside.

In a blender combine 1 cup of the strawberries and the water. Cover and blend till smooth.

In a saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in pureed berry mixture. Cook and stir over med heat till mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Cool for 10 minutes without stirring.


Arrange half of the remaining strawberries, stem end down, in crust. Carefully glaze thickened mixture over fruit, thoroughly covering each peice of fruit.

Arrange remaining berries over first layer. Glaze these berries as first layer. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!

The only thing I'd say about this is that the chocolate tastes kind of diluted; more like those fake chocolate candies you get at holiday times.

I found the answer to that in a second strawberry pie recipe, which I will post tomorrow, if I remember. HA.