Friday, January 28, 2011

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

One of my favorite things to eat is chocolate covered strawberries and nothing is a better excuse to make chocolate covered strawberries then for Valentines day. We have all seen the tuxedo strawberries and just wonderful decorations that seem impossible to do, however, I find that MY WAY to do strawberries is easiest and they always look amazing.

For my best friends wedding I made strawberries for it and to jazz them up a bit I dipped some of them in white chocolate and the others in milk chocolate, now that would have been great but I also went a step further and put chocolate R's and L's on them (their first initials). It only took an extra step and it was well worth it. They disappeared extremely quickly! Unfortunately she was having computer problems so I never did get photo's HOPEFULLY I can get some soon.

For Valentines Day I thought that it would be fun to put on X's and O's and even better it would be fun to share how to I make them.

Items needed are simple:
Strawberries
Bag of Milk Chocolate Chips
Bag of White Chocolate Chips Note: Don't use the Nestle Toll house chips as I did. I forgot how much I hate them, they don't melt very well, Ghiradelli's makes a great white chip so spend the extra as it will make your finished product a lot nicer.
Ziplock Bags
Parchment or Wax Paper



First thing to do is wash and dry your strawberries and bring them to room temperature, if they are cold it will make your melted chocolate harden up a lot quicker and it doesn't stick to the strawberries very well.

Take about about 3/4 of the bag of chocolate chips and poor in a microwave safe bowl.



Place chocolate in microwave for no longer than 30 seconds, bottom will melt faster than top, if additional melting is needed put back in the microwave at 15 second intervals.
The chocolate chips should look like in image below mix with spatula until completely melted.




Once completely mixed you may put in the microwave for an additional 5 seconds if desired but not necessary, do not burn your chocolate, and always do a taste test before dipping your strawberries.



Dip your strawberries in the melted chocolate, flipping over as needed and set on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.



Repeat the same steps with your white chocolate chips. Melt, dip, and Set. Then place in fridge until the chocolate is completely set. As I mentioned before I had a few issues with my white chips and some people had some vegetable oil when melting their chocolate, I don't like too, but if you find it is necessary not very much is easier and it will melt quite a bit easier.



Now it is time to accent your strawberries. I thought that it would be fun to put X's and O's after I did some of the O's I thought it would be even cuter to make the O's look like hearts.

Take the remaining chocolate and place it in a ziploc bag (this often times can be trickery melting the chocolate in the bag so if desired melt it in the bowl and then place in the bag). When the chocolate looks ready just knead until completely melted.



Clip the bottom tip of the bag not to big, it is always better to cut the tip to small and adjust then to clip it too big and not being able to adjust. Then decorate your strawberries.



Place them in the fridge to set and then they are ready to eat.



As you can see I didn't do the best job but I have another tip. For the wedding I wanted the letters PERFECT so I found a font that I liked on my computer enlarged it and printed it. I then placed the letters on a cookies sheet under parchment paper and then traced the letters. I put the chocolate let it set and then placed them on the strawberries. A lot easier for people with the shaky hand and bad penmanship.

I still believe the strawberries came out great and the tasted WONDERFUL. If you are sharing make sure you make enough for yourself. A great Valentine Gift for the special someone.

Happy Valentining.





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