Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Love is in the air!

So do something about it and stuff a giant chocolate-covered strawberry in your loved one’s mouth.

BONUS 1: This is a ridiculously easy treat to make, so you can do it right before your fancy-schmancy Valentine’s dinner and not be all covered in flour or glazy from a hot oven.
BONUS 2: Fruit is good for you, which kind of sort of cancels out the fact that chocolate isn’t on the top of the list of things that are good for you.

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or milk chocolate)

2 tablespoons shortening

1 lb. strawberries (about 20 or so)

1/3 cup white chocolate chips (optional for drizzle)
1. In a medium bowl, melt chocolate with shortening in microwave for 1 minute, stirring, and then continuing to microwave in 15-second increments until melted. Stir until smooth.
2. Stick wooden skewers or toothpicks into the tops of strawberries (wash & dry berries prior to use!), and dip berries into chocolate mixture. Allow excess chocolate to drip from berries. Turn strawberries upside down and insert wooden skewers/toothpicks into a block of styrofoam for the chocolate to set. (Alternative: dip berries into chocolate and place onto a piece of parchment or wax paper to dry; bottoms will be flattened but I doubt that anyone will snub them [or you] because of that.)
3. Optional white chocolate drizzle: in a small bowl, melt white chocolate chips in microwave for 30 seconds (or until melted), stirring until smooth. Scrape into a small ziploc bag or piping bag, and snip tip off corner of bag. Pipe chocolate over set chocolate berries in a decorative pattern.
Tips:
- Chocolate type is your choice, of course. Some prefer milk chocolate with strawberies… some like semi-sweet. If you like bittersweet, I’m not going to stop you.
- Try to use organic berries if you really love your Valentine and don’t want to poision them with pesticides :).
- Use a deeper bowl if you have one, instead of a wide bowl. (That way you can actually dip your berries into the chocolate, instead of having to awkwardly roll them around.)
- Store uneaten berries in the fridge. They’ll bead up a bit with condensation ‘sweat’ as they warm up to room temperature, but whatever. (That is one reason why you’ll want to make them the same day you’ll serve them- just let the chocolate set at room temperature and serve them right away.)
- Extra Miler with the Strawberries? Make this cake with the extra strawberries (instead of raspberries). Serve the chocolate covered ones alongside. Yum.
- Happy Valentine’s Month!
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February 6th, 2013 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: Chocolate, Fruit