Deconstructed Strawberry Cheesecake

I was in the mood to make a cheesecake for my girl friends birthday, but I wanted to create something amazing that she wouldn’t forget. So I thought why not make a deconstructed strawberry cheesecake. This was actually a lot easier to make then it looks.

Ingredients

• 2 cups crushed graham crackers
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp low fat margerine, melted
• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup tbls finely chopped dark chocolate
• 1 package of low fat cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups of low fat cool whip (3 used with the cream cheese and 1 cup used for the chocolate whipped topping)
• Chocolate dessert cups

Instructions for Heart Cookies and Crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F).
2. Lightly grease a cookie baking sheet (I used my round stone as I don’t need to grease it).
3. Mix crushed biscuits and 1 tbsp sugar together in a medium bowl.
4. Add butter and stir until well combined.
5. Using your hands, spread mixture on the cookie pan and press down as hard as you can.
6. Bake until crust is set and golden in places, 15–20 minutes.
7. Set crust aside until cool.
8. Once cooled use a small heart shape cookie cutter to cut out cookies and set them aside.
9. Place the left over crumbs in a bowl. These will be used in the chocolate cup creation.

Instructions for Strawberry Topping

1. Place chopped strawberries, lemon juice and 1 tbsp sugar in a small saucepan and cook on medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
2.  Stir over heat until mixture starts to thicken, then set aside to cool.

Instructions for Cheese Cake Filling

1. Combined the cream cheese and cool whip with an electric mixer.
2. Add the chopped up chocolate pieces and stir.
3. Place in fridge to cool

Instructions for Chocolate Whipped Topping

1. Mix 1 cup of cool whip with a low fat chocolate pudding cup.
2. Set in fridge to keep cool.

Instructions to Assemble Your Masterpiece

1. Fill the chocolate dessert cup about 1/4 to 1/2 full with the cream cheese mixture.
2. Place a layer of the loose gram cracker crumbs on top of the cream cheese.
3. Add about a tbls spoon of the strawberry mixture on top of the gram crumbs.
4. Finally top the strawberries with the chocolate whipped topping and sprinkle with some shaved chocolate.
5. Next to the cup whip some of the chocolate whipped cream on the place.
6. slice a large fresh strawberry, fan it out and place on top of the chocolate whip cream.
7. Place about a table spoon of the cream cheese mixture in front of the fanned strawberry.
8. Place heart cookie next to the cream cheese mixture to help prop it up.
9. Sprinkle with shaved chocolate, serve and enjoy.