Chocolate Covered Strawberries are a delicious dessert that you can incorporate into your Valentine’s Day celebrations! No one can deny that chocolate-covered strawberries are one of the most luxurious treats. Not only are they delicious, but they also come in different colors, which makes them a fun dessert to share with someone special. You can make them at home. Here are 5 tips to making the best chocolate-covered strawberries at home.
Tip #1
The outcome of any product always begins with fresh and high-quality ingredients. This is important because strawberries are highly perishable. Begin making your dessert by selecting the best pint of strawberries that you can find at your local grocery store. You will also want to select the most giant strawberries available at the time.
Tip #2
Use a melting semi-sweet, dark, or white chocolate for your strawberries. Several brands will indicate if it is melting chocolate on its packaging. Make sure that you use a chocolate with cocoa butter listed as an ingredient. This ensures you that you are using real chocolate. Some brands use additives instead of cocoa butter.
An example of this would be candy melts. These melting wafers are great to use for a splash of color. But if you’re a chocolate lover, like me, I would not recommend dipping the entire strawberry into candy melts.
Click on this link to view the type of chocolate I use.
Tip #3
Make sure that your strawberries are as dry as you can get them before dipping them in the melted chocolate. These strawberries are known to leak. We want to prevent that from happening. Dipping wet strawberries will cause them to leak faster than they should. Also, moisture stops the chocolate from adhering to the strawberries well.
Pat each strawberry dry using a paper towel after being washed. Then, allow the strawberries to sit for about 15 minutes to finish air-drying.
Tip #4
The stem of strawberries can be fragile. They can fall off while you are trying to dip strawberries into chocolate. This can be frustrating, and everyone loves the look of a green stem and leaves on their strawberry dessert. Use skewers to dip strawberries that may have a smaller stem.
Click on this link to view the skewers I use.
Tip #5
Use a small amount of vegetable oil to thin out the chocolate while it melts and to develop a smooth shine as it dries. Shortening and oil flakes can also be used. I would not suggest flavored oils such as olive oil because they can change the flavor of the chocolate.
Check out the recipe below and make your very own homemade chocolate-covered strawberries!
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Equipment
- 1 small bowl
- 1 skewer
- Wax Paper
- disposable bag optional
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup Melting chocolate dark, milk, white, or semisweet chocolate
- 1 pint Fresh strawberries
- 1/2 tsp vegetable oil oil flakes or shortening are acceptable
- 1/2 cup 1 white chocolate optional for drizzling
Instructions
- Rinse the strawberries with cool water. Dry each strawberry individually with a paper towel. Allow the strawberries to continue air-drying for 5-10 minutes.
- Prepare wax paper.
- Melt the chocolate for dipping in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds. Stir chocolate and repeat until the chocolate is just melted. Do not over heat. Pour the melted chocolate into a short cup. This will help with dipping the strawberries.
- Stick a skewer into the top of the strawberry. Pull the leaves away from the strawberry in the direction of the skewer. Place half of the strawberry into the chocolate. Spin the strawberry until it is fully covered with chocolate.
- Tap the excess chocolate into the cup. Place the chocolate-covered strawberry on the wax paper. Remove the skewer. Repeat with the remaining strawberries.
- Allow chocolate to harden before beginning the next step.
- Melt white chocolate in the microwave. Pour the melted white chocolate into a disposable bag. Cut a small piece of the tip off the bag. Drizzle the white over the chocolate-covered strawberries.
Storing Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Chocolate and strawberries have water content. Chocolate-covered strawberries sweat and leak faster when they are stored in a refrigerator. Therefore, keeping them in the cold refrigerator causes condensation to develop sooner.
With the inevitable leakage of strawberries looming over our delicious treat, I would suggest making chocolate-covered strawberries and storing them at room temperature the day that you plan to eat or gift them. If that is not possible and they must be made ahead, place the strawberries in a storage container, wrap the container tightly with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator. This will help prevent the cool air from reaching the strawberries. You can store them for up to 3 days.