Take strawberries, dip in chocolate, the ingredients you use could make a difference. You can certainly do this with your average bag of chocolate chips and basket of grocery store strawberries, and in fact, that is an excellent idea for a rainy day project with kids. But if you want to up the ante, spring for the chocolate, and pick up some super-ripe farmers market strawberries. It will make such a huge difference. You will be happy to know how easy it is to make chocolate-covered strawberries at home for a fraction of the cost of store-bought. Do it impress your sweetie? Here’s how to make the best chocolate covered strawberries.
Preparation
Your chocolate-covered strawberries will only taste as great as the ingredients you use, so choose the best you can:
Bigger berries don’t regularly taste better if they are not in season. Go ahead and taste one before you buy. You have to choose berries that are fringed with green leaves and that have no soft spots on the fruit itself. Bonus points are that if the strawberries come with a stem attached. Stems make an attractive presentation and they are handy for dipping and trim them to a uniform length. We can deal with that later.
The same goes for chocolate. Whether you use dark, milk, or white chocolate, choose something you have tasted and liked. The better quality chocolate contains more cocoa butter and will be smoother and glossier when it melts. You want to use baking chocolate here, and not the thin rectangular bars that are meant for eating. Baking chips in bags are fine, and I buy bags of 60% bittersweet chocolate, milk chocolate, as well as white chocolate.
True white chocolate can be hard to find in chip form, so in that case, I spring for a white chocolate baking bar also.
To keep berries fresh, please plan on dipping them within two days of buying them.
- 1 pint basket fresh strawberries (about 1 pound)
- 2 cups dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (about 12 ounces)
- 1/2 cup chopped white chocolate (about 3 ounces), for drizzling (optional)
- Small plastic bag
- Double-boiler or heatproof bowl and saucepan
- Heatproof spatula
- Baking sheet
- Parchment, wax paper, or Silpat
Method
Wash and then dry the strawberries
Rinse the strawberries under cool running water and pat dry.
The strawberries should be completely dry before dipping. Therefore, you spread them out and let them air-dry if it is necessary.
You should line a baking sheet with parchment or waxed paper. Use a large enough pan to leave an inch or two of space between the strawberries.
If you plan on coating dipped strawberries with chopped nuts, coconut flakes, crushed candy, sprinkles, etc., prep those ingredients and put them in bowls.
Melt the dark chocolate
You maybe wonder how to melt the chocolate well? We did share.You try to fill the bottom of the double-boiler or medium saucepan with an inch to two of water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Then, you transfer all the chocolate into the top of the double-boiler or a heatproof bowl. You set this over the simmering water. Let the chocolate melt, stirring irregularly, until no more lumps remain. You also remove the bowl with the chocolate from heat.
Prepare your workspace
Set a bowl of melted chocolate in front of you on a clean towel. You place the dried strawberries to your left. Then you line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place this on your right.
Dip the strawberries
Working with one strawberry at a time, you have to pick up a strawberry by the top leaves and dip it into the chocolate well. Then, turn or swirl the strawberry as needed to completely coat it in chocolate. Lift the strawberry out and shake to remove any excess chocolate gently.
Lay dipped strawberries on the baking sheet
You carefully lay the dipped strawberry on its side on the baking sheet. Next, you repeat with dipping the remaining strawberries.
Let the chocolate set
Let the strawberries sit until the chocolate coating is set. Also, dry to the touch. You can also put the baking sheet in the refrigerate to speed this along.
Prepare the white chocolate drizzle
When the strawberries are all ready, melt the white chocolate just as you did the dark chocolate. (Alternatively, for this small amount of chocolate, melt them in about 15-second bursts in a microwave, and stir between each burst.) You have to transfer the melted white chocolate to a small ziplock bag. And then, how to make our chocolate covered strawberries more attractive?
Drizzle strawberries with white chocolate
An easy way to dress up dark chocolate-dipped strawberries is by drizzling them with few white chocolates. Let the dark chocolate cool and harden around the strawberries while you try to melt the white chocolate. You can do this by setting the baking sheet in the refrigerator for a few minutes.
Melt the white chocolate using the microwave or stovetop method, and let it cool slightly before spooning it into a pastry bag fitted with a small writing tip. You also use a resealable plastic bag and snip a tiny bit off one corner after filling the bag. Squeeze a fine thread of melted chocolate over some strawberries.
You should make the white chocolate cool and firm up before serving the decorated strawberries.
Push the melted white chocolate to one corner of the bag, then snip a small corner off your bag. Squeezing the bag gently and quickly drizzle the white chocolate over the strawberries, and sweeping motions over the whole baking sheet.
Let the white chocolate set
Let the white chocolate drizzle set (or place the baking sheet in the refrigerator for a few minutes), then serve it.
After the decoration is done, we have finished the delicious chocolate dipped strawberry dip. It melted to the final taste. Also, you can learn with HowtoNc about many methods to cook others. Wishing you all the best desserts to love the hearts of people!
