CHOCOLATE DIPPED STRAWBERRIES

My nephew, John, came over today and we made chocolate dipped strawberries. John is a head chef and loves to cook. So I thought it might be fun if we played around with some food while he was here.

It seems like everyone is always so impressed with chocolate dipped strawberries. Yes, they are very tasty but, they are so easy to make.

For those of you who have never made them, I thought I would share with you just how easy and fast these are to make

So let's get started.


We went to a local strawberry stand by me. They grow the strawberries right there. You couldn't get them any fresher, even if you grew them yourself.

Be sure to wash and dry your strawberries. You don't want to eat any dirt when you take a bite. Also, they must be completely dry before you dip them in chocolate or the chocolate won't stick.

Be sure you get good tasting chocolate. Melt the chocolate, and make sure all the lumps are out of the chocolate and it's nice and smooth.

Then take your strawberry and dip. It's better to get the bigger strawberries to dip but since it's towards the end of the season we had to settle for what they had.

Lay your dipped strawberry on waxed paper and let them dry. Now you can go ahead and eat these as they are but I like to pretty them up a bit.

So I melt some white chocolate. I use these little buttons of chocolate. You can just put them in a bowl, heat them in the microwave until melted and then dip. Some chocolate you have to temper and that is when it gets a much harder and takes more time.

I start off with heating them in the microwave for one minute then I take it out and stir. I put it back in and heat for 30 seconds, stir and keep doing that until completely melted.

Be careful not to over cook the chocolate as it will burn and seize up. Once it does that you can't do anything to fix it and you have to throw it out then start over.

Once the white chocolate was melted I put it in a pastry bag.

Cut the tip off. Make sure the hole is very small or the chocolate will pour out to fast.

Then starting off the strawberry, drizzle the chocolate. Be sure to end the drizzle off the strawberry too.

OK, silly me! I forgot to take a photo of the dark chocolate being drizzled with the white chocolate.

But I make both kinds and so this is a picture of the strawberry dipped in the white chocolate and drizzled with the dark. But you get the idea, right?

After they dry, put them on a pretty plate and serve. Watch your guest ooh and aah as they enjoy their fresh dipped strawberries.

So there you have it. Pretty fast and easy huh? We did 3 baskets of strawberries in about 1/2 hour from start to finish.

I must tell you, they were so good! They were sweet and juicy with just the perfect amount of chocolate on them. YUM!

Now it's your turn to give them a try. Let me know if you do and how they turned out.

Hugs,

Joanne