About this Recipe

What do you need to make these beautiful, bite-able, dark chocolate dipped fresh strawberries? It is so simle to make this delicious, mouth watering delight. Mostly you just need to be in the mood to have some fun dipping strawberries into melted chocolate and drizzling more melted chocolate decoratively on top. Its fun to make these chocolate dipped strawberries and they are a pretty healthy choice for a dessert treat. One generally associates chocolate dipped strawberries being made for really special occasions, but truthfully, they could become a regular part of the dessert recipes that you make for your family.

Well your at it, you could dip some other fresh fruits as well and make up a whole platter of yumminess! And yes, we googled it and the word - yumminess - is a real word meaning "Very pleasing to the taste or smell; delicious." We think its the perfect description.

Honestly; the first time we decided to make these chocolate dipped strawberries, we were a bit intimidated and thought the drizzle on the top was only for professional dessert decorators. You are going to be amazed and surprised how easy it is to make very interesting designs. You cannot make a mistake and they all end up looking pretty and appealing. It doesn't take long to get the hang of squeezing the chocolate out of the piping bags. Practice a little, just by squeezing it back into the chocolate bowl first so you see how fast it comes out and how hard to squeeze the bag.

Grandmother's Tips for Chocolate Dipped Strawberries Recipe:

1. You could use milk chocolate but only chocolate 70% and higher in cacao content have the nutritional value you can receive from chocolate.

If you want to understand more about raw cacao and it's benefits read Heidi's article on How and Why We Quit Drinking Coffee

2. Make sure the strawberries are dry or, as it says in the directions below or the chocolate will not stick to them.

3. When you make your piping bags, cut only a very tiny hole so the chocolate piping you are squeezing out comes out nice and thin. If you are making your own squeezing bag, something like a ziploc bag works well because it is nice and thick, like a piping bag.

4. If you don't use all your chocolate, just refrigerate it for another time or use.

5. When you are done,you can wash out the piping bags, by turning them inside out, and washing, rinsing and letting dry inside and outside.

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Ingredients

(Print)

24 fresh strawberries

5 ounces Callebaut dark chocolate

1 teaspoon grapeseed oil (or any taste-free vegetable oil)

5 ounces Callebaut white chocolate

1 teaspoon grapeseed oil (or any taste-free vegetable oil)

Directions

1. Wash the strawberries. Lay out onto a clean kitchen towel so they are not stacked and let the strawberries air dry completely as the chocolate will not stick on them if they are wet. You can leave the stems on.

2. When dry, put a toothpick into the stem end of each strawberry and put all the prepared berries onto a plate. The toothpicks will give you something to hold onto when you are dipping and garnishing your berries. Use the stronger rounded toothpicks.

3. Prepare a flat dish as a place to put the dipped strawberries. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit. This is where you will place your dipped strawberries while the chocolate is hardening. The strawberries need a flat surface so they don't roll onto each other. You could also use a parchment lined baking sheet.

4. For the best flavor, use a good grade of chocolate when you are making these chocolate dipped strawberry treats. Callebaut chocolate is a very good choice and works very well for chocolate dipping.

5.You will need two pots for melting the chocolate. In this recipe we are melting both dark chocolate and white chocolate.

You can use a double boiler for melting the chocolate or chocolate melting pots.

*Tip: The electric chocolate melting pot was around $10.00 to buy and if you are melting chocolate often is really a handy tool to have in your kitchen. We like the results and flavor we get with callebaut chocolate and we buy in block form but , you can also use chocolate chips or chocolate melting wafers.

6. If you are using block chocolate you need to first chop it into small pieces for even melting.

7. Melt your chocolate over low heat and add the 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil to each pot of chocolate. Grapeseed oil is a good choice as it will not alter the flavor of the chocolate. Stir slowly and occasionally with a rubber spatula.

8. When the chocolate has melted, transfer each chocolate into a small glass 'dipping' bowl. Choose an appropriate vessel that you can easily dip the strawberries into. A small and deep shape works best. As you dip you will also rotate the strawberry to let the chocolate run on all the sides and give the excess chocolate a chance to drip off back into the dipping bowl.

9. Be sure to reserve about 1/3 of the white and dark chocolates and spoon into piping bags. When you are ready to garnish, you will cut the smallest amount off the tip of the bag to pipe the chocolate through. If you do not have piping bags you can use small plastic baggies.

10. Set up your working station with your chocolate bowls beside your prepared strawberries and the parchment lined plate ready to receive the dipped berries.

11. Take a strawberry by the toothpick and dip it into the chocolate, roll it in the chocolate being sure to cover all round the strawberry. Leave some red strawberry showing at the top where the stem is. The visual appearance of the dipped strawberries with a little bit of red left is very appealing. Allow the excess chocolate to drip off then place the dipped berry onto your plate lined with parchment paper.

12. Continue until all the berries are dipped. Let the chocolate dipped berries sit for about 5 minutes at room temperature and then transfer them into the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

*This is an important step. By allowing them to sit at room temperature first and then refrigerating, the chocolate should not crack and should be a lovely consistency when you bite into it.

13. Remove the dipped strawberries, cut a very small hole off the tip of the piping bag and proceed to pipe on the melted chocolates decorate the strawberries in any way you desire. As you see we did some where the strawberries first dipped in white chocolate, and some where the berries are dipped in dark chocolate.

ENJOY!

Return to this Chocolate Dipped Strawberries recipe or check out more recipes at Grandmother's Kitchen

Tips on Melting Chocolate: You may wonder why to put a little vegetable oil into the chocolate when melting it. Adding oil to the chocolate keeps the chocolate from drying out. If the chocolate is too thick, it also helps to thin it out a bit. Melting chocolate, it is vital you do not get any water into the chocolate if you are using a double boiler as it will ruin the melted chocolate. It can seize the chocolate which means, the chocolate forms little lumps from the cocoa particles. You also must melt chocolate on very low heat.

What Kind of Oil?It is important to choose a taste-free vegetable oil. Using something like olive oil that is very strong will alter the taste of the chocolate.

More Tips on Melting Chocolate When you are melting chocolate and it comes in the form of a big block, cut the chocolate block into very small pieces first. Chocolate melting pots are very easy as you just put the chocolate and oil in and these melting pots have a low temperature, so the chocolate melts easily. Using a double boiler is the common method. You just set the chocolate into the top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl, over a saucepan with simmering water. You must not have it boiling as that is too hot. Also you don't want any water from the bottom vessel to 'jump' up into the chocolate. Keep it on low and let it happen slow.

Can I Use a Microwave? We don't actually use a microwave oven at all in Grandmother's kitchen, so don't have hands on experience melting chocolate in that method although information on the internet does give instructions: "To melt chocolate and keep it in temper, follow these simple steps. - Place finely chopped chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. - Microwave at 20% power for 15 seconds; remove the bowl from the microwave and stir."

Use your imagination! You can drizzle on lines of chocolate to form a nice design. We drizzled on both white and dark chocolate and the results were beautiful. You do not need to be a master decorator to make these delightful chocolate dipped, chocolate drizzled strawberries! Put back into the refrigerator to harden up the chocolate drizzle.These treats would be fine for about 3 days in the refrigerator, but not likely they would ever last that long uneaten!