Chocolate Covered Strawberries: Tips and Tricks

I once tried dipping some biscotti in chocolate. It was a disaster. After just a few minutes on the double boiler the chocolate seized up, burned, and I had no idea what I did wrong. It was several years before I worked up the courage to try dipping anything in real chocolate again. But recently I did, and had a lot of success. Here are my tips and tricks to making perfect chocolate dipped strawberries--not the cheapest treat in the world, but still not $20/lb, which is a pretty fair price at a chocolate shop. If you follow these instructions well, you should be able to avoid major chocolate disasters, and hopefully end up with something amazing to indulge yourself upon.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

2 lbs strawberries
1 (12 oz) bag *milk chocolate chips--high quality (I like Ghirardelli)
2 Tbsp shortening

Before you start, please take a moment to read the instructions carefully and prep all your ingredients and tools. You will need 2 bowls, plenty of paper towels, and a tray lined with parchment/wax paper/silicone baking mat for cooling.

1) Boil 2 quarts of water. Meanwhile, wash strawberries and lay out on paper towels to dry thoroughly. Dry very, very well.
2) find 2 bowls, one that is glass or metal and can fit in the other comfortably without much wiggle room around the top, but still some space at the bottom for hot water to fit. I like to use a tall, deep bowl on the botttom and a shallower, wider bowl on the top. It allows plenty of space for lots of hot water without a lot of space for water to splash out.
3) Pour the boiling water into the bottom bowl and place the other inside (the inside bowl should be the glass or metal bowl with little to no wiggle room, but it should make contact with the water.)
4) Please, Please, PLEASE be careful to not allow even the tiniest drop of water into the inside bowl. Water will ruin the chocolate.
5) Add the chocolate chips and the shortening to the inside bowl, again being careful that no water gets in the bowl. Stir well and constantly until the chocolate melts.
6) Just when the chocolate is melted enough to be smooth, take off of the hot water. You don't want it to get too hot--it burns very easily--just hot enough to be liquidy. Keep the water standing by so that you can warm the chocolate a little more if it starts to cool down too much.
7) Hold the dry strawberries by the leaves and dip in the melted chocolate. Place on parchment paper, wax paper, or a silicone baking mat that is on a cookie sheet. Once all the strawberries are dipped, put in the refrigerator to harden for at least fifteen minutes.
7 part 2) If you want a decoration on the strawberries like nuts or drizzled dark/white chocolate, you can sprinkle nuts on to the chocolate before it goes into the fridge, or even do a double dip--dip strawberry first in the chocolate of course, then dip in chopped nuts or sprinkles before setting on the cooling surface. Drizzled chocolate is easy: just put about half a cup of dark or white chocolate chips into a zip-lock bag and place in the hot water, kneading it gently every minute, until it melts. Snip off a corner and squeeze the hot chocolate over the strawberries in a quick zigzag pattern. Then cool in the fridge.
Enjoy!

*If you want dark chocolate or white chocolate dipped strawberries, the method is exactly the same. You simply use dark chocolate chips or white chocolate chips instead of the milk chocolate.

Note: I've tried dipping other fruits in chocolate. Strawberries always work the best because the juice is well contained inside the berry. Other berries like raspberries or blueberries are also very good, but are a little harder to dip because they're small. Wetter fruits, like sliced apples or pineapple, tend to be too wet and the chocolate doesn't adhere well. Strawberries are the classic for a reason! But I'll bet kumquats would be phenomenal...

Lisa's Soap Box: Don't be afraid to get in the kitchen and make yourself something spectacular, like these chocolate dipped strawberries! It really is not that difficult; it simply requires a steady hand and self-confidence. Chocolate strawberries are a delicacy few of us ever purchase, let alone try to make--but we can enjoy delicacies like this a lot more often if we're willing to try making it ourselves. There's no need to pay the exorbitant service fees when you make your own food, and then you get to make it just the way you like. My husband loves the dark chocolate strawberries. I like mine with two kinds of chocolate. Don't even get me started on steak and how I think a restaurant's medium rare is really well done... By cooking the food myself, at home, I get exactly what I want at a phenomenal price. It's definitely worth the time and effort to learn for the great benefits!