Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Chocolate covered strawberries are a popular and romantic dessert along with being delicious and fun to make. They’re also extremely easy to prepare especial since they don’t require any time in the way of baking and they are relatively simple to put together.  Chocolate covered strawberries are great as a fun dessert, a treat for a party, a gift, or just a nice reminder for someone you care about. They are so quick and simple that you may be tempted to make some for everyone you know!

When you decide to make chocolate covered strawberries the first thing you want to decide is what type of strawberries you want to make exactly. Many people just dip their strawberries in chocolate and call it good but others like a more elaborate approach. Some people like to do more than one layer of chocolate (usually using different kinds like white or dark) others will also add toppings that they roll their strawberries in like sprinkles or nuts or whatever else they might prefer or drizzle caramel or other sauces on top of them. There certainly aren’t any rules when it comes to chocolate covered strawberries, it’s really all about having fun and enjoying the finished product so get together what you want to put on your strawberries and get started! Below I’ve listed the basic instructions for making strawberries that have “tuxedos” on them using white and dark chocolate.

First you’ll want to get twenty or so strawberries (or however many more you might need) and make sure that they are all washed and cleaned off. Its best to leave the tops of these on as they make it easier to dip and maneuver your strawberries as you’re preparing them but you can cut them off if you really want to.  You want to make sure your strawberries are washed especially well and that they are carefully dried. Any water that remains on your strawberries will cause your chocolate to seize up and can ruin the dipping process for you so it’s crucial that you take the time to dry your strawberries well. Once your strawberries have been dried off you can begin to heat up your chocolate and prepare to dip them.

Prior to dipping any strawberries lay out a couple sheets of wax paper so that they have somewhere to rest and harden while you are dipping others. Once you’ve done that begin to melt your chocolate by placing one package of white chocolate chips over a double boiler and letting them melt. Once the white chocolate is melted dip each strawberry in it all the way up to the “shoulders” of the strawberry, leaving just a bit of red at the top near the leaves. Set each strawberry on the wax paper after it has been dipped and let it harden and dry. If this is taking to long you can put them in the freezer to speed up the process.

Meanwhile heat up a package of the dark chocolate (in a separate bowl) and let it melt entirely. Take each strawberry that has been dipped in white chocolate and dip the sides of it into the dark chocolate so that only a “v” shaped triangle of white chocolate is left visible in the top, middle of the strawberry. Do this with each strawberry and then set them back on the wax paper with the white triangle facing up to dry. As the strawberries are drying take the remaining dark chocolate and scoop it into a plastic bag or a frosting bag with a very small tip. If you use a plastic bag snip off a tiny corner of the bottom of the bag and push the chocolate into that corner so that you have a makeshift decorating bag. Make sure the chocolate is still warm and easy to work with while you’re doing this.

Once this is done you can make little bow-ties and buttons on each of your strawberry by drawing on the white chocolate with the dark chocolate. This is a great way to give them a cute little look and it can be a lot of fun for parties or for a date. If you aren’t sure about giving your strawberries tuxedos you can always just dip them in one color of chocolate and then drizzle the other color of chocolate over it (dark on white or white on dark) and make fun patters or designs or even do letters to spell out a name, a date, or a little message. Once all your strawberries are done put them in the fridge or the freezer so that they stay good. It’s best to eat these the day that you make them although the will stay good for a couple of days.

If you’re giving these away as a gift the best way to go about it is to place a few of the strawberries in a decorative manner on a plate and then place that plate on top of a few sheets of colored cellophane. Center the plate and then gather up the cellophane around it and tie it at he top with some pretty ribbon. That way your plate is contained and wrapped but it wont touch the strawberries and you can still see through it to see what is inside the gift. You may want to attach a nice little gift card which you can tie at the top with some ribbon as well as make some ribbon curls. Just be sure to deliver these kinds of gifts right away because keeping your strawberries out at room temperature can make them go bad faster and if they end up anywhere warm the chocolate could melt and leave you with a rather sticky mess to clean up instead of a lovely gift. Also be sure that all your strawberries are facing out so that the recipient of the gift can see their fun designs.

Chocolate covered strawberries make a great dessert and they’re so fast and simple that it can be tempting to make them every night. You don’t have to go to all this effort if you don’t want to and in fact if you really wanted to be low-key you can just heat up a few chocolate chips in a bowl until they’re all melted, wash some fruit up, and dip in your favorites. It’s all about what works for you. If you do decide to decorate your strawberries remember that there are plenty of fun options so get creative with your strawberries and see what you can come up with.