Making Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Making Chocolate Covered Strawberries

So you are having a fancy dinner party or maybe planning a romantic evening for two and want a dessert that will impress your guests. Whatever your reason for wanting to make them, you'll find that chocolate covered strawberries are an easy and elegant treat to create. This classic indulgence is as tasty as it is simple! You Will Need: ● 1 quart fresh strawberries ● 12 oz chocolate (you can use any kind you like: milk, dark or even white). Chocolate chips or melting wafers both work ● Wax or parchment paper ● Large baking/cookie sheet ● Double boiler or two sauce pans of different sizes

The first step is to wash the strawberries and pat them dry with a paper towel. Because the chocolate will be covering a good portion of the strawberry, you don't have to be extremely careful in handling them but you should check for dark spots or bruises. Be sure to leave the stems and leaves on, as they are what you'll hold on to while dipping the berries into your chocolate, plus they add to the visual appeal of the strawberries after they have been covered. Make sure to dry the berries well, as the chocolate won't stick to the berries if they are still wet. Next, you need to melt the chocolate in a double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler you can make one: take a medium sized saucepan and fill ¾ of it with water. Then put a smaller saucepan or heat-proof bowl inside of it and fill it with your chocolate. Turn the stove on low heat and let the chocolate start to melt, stirring occasionally. Take your baking sheet and line it with wax or parchment paper, whichever one you have handy. Be sure you have chosen a baking sheet large enough to fit all of your strawberries while also allowing some extra room around each berry for after they've been dipped, as you don't want them getting stuck together. Once almost all the chocolate pieces have melted, turn off the stove so the chocolate doesn't burn. Keep stirring until everything is melted and the chocolate has a creamy and smooth texture. Time to start dipping! Take a strawberry and dip it into the chocolate. Twirl it around in the chocolate so you don't miss any spots and then place it on the baking sheet to cool. Repeat until you have covered all of the strawberries with chocolate. Once all of your strawberries have been coated in chocolate, put the baking sheet into the fridge to allow the chocolate to harden. Tips Get a handle on things: If you're having trouble keeping a grip on the strawberry stems or are dealing with strawberries that have short stems and leaves, stick a toothpick into the top of the strawberry. This will act as a handle you can hold on to while dipping the strawberry into the chocolate. If you're using melting wafers for your chocolate, be careful to keep water out of the way of the pots as water - even the tiniest amount -- will make the melted wafers harden, rendering the whole batch of chocolate unusable.

Mix it up: Experiment with using different kinds of chocolate, all on the same strawberry. Try stripes: First, dip a strawberry in white chocolate. After the white chocolate has hardened, put some melted dark chocolate into a zip loc sandwich bag and seal it. In one corner of the bag make a very small hole. Squeeze the chocolate through the small hole and guide it along the strawberry in rows. For an added twist, make half of your batch white chocolate with dark chocolate stripes and the other half dark chocolate with white stripes.