Strawberries Stuffed with Greek Yogurt & Strawberry Jam
Most appetizer trays contain a fruit tray of some sort. Such trays often get passed over in favor of more cheesy, substantial, or just more interesting choices. This is not fair. Fruit trays can be beautiful and delicious if you keep your selections to what is ripe and in season as much as possible. I will never turn down a chunk of pineapple, or a bite of kiwi, but pullleeezzze do not attempt to give me cantaloupe in the middle of winter. Or watermelon. I beg you. In this recipe, we use local Hood Strawberries if you have them – if not any good berry will do. Then we stuff them good Greek yogurt that has been sweetened with strawberry jam. Arrange these beauties in the middle of your next fruit tray and see how fast they disappear. Or you can do what I often do – keep a batch of these in the refrigerator and grab one every time you walk by. They keep for 3-4 days, still looking beautiful. Oh yeah.
Ingredients
- 2 pints of nice big strawberries, washed
- 1 16- ounce container of best quality Greek yogurt I use Fage
- About ⅓ - ½ cup Strawberry jam
Instructions
- Empty the yogurt into a fine mesh strainer over a medium sized bowl. Place in refrigerator and allow yogurt to drain overnight. The resulting concoction will be a yogurt ‘cheese’ that is quite thick.
- Place the yogurt cheese in a medium bowl. Stir in enough strawberry jam to sweeten to your taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Using a sharp knife, slice off the top of the strawberry, removing the stem. Slice off enough so the berry can ‘sit’ on its head without tipping over. Again using a sharp knife, make a crosswise cut in the tip end of the strawberry, about half way down the length of the berry. Set aside.
- Spoon the yogurt mixture into a pastry bag, or a large zip lock bag. If using a zip lock bag, snip off the end – start small! You can always make it larger. If using a pastry bag, use a tip that will allow you enough room to fill the berries.
- Pipe yogurt filling into the center of each berry, making sure you reach to top of the berry.
- Chill until ready to serve. Note: These are best filled right before serving but are well behaved if they have to rest in the refrigerator for an hour or two. I have even been known to keep them for 3-4 days and they still look great.
