Chocolate Strawberries for V Day

For the first time in years, this Valentine’s Day, I’m home alone dog sitting Millie, while my better half is freezing in the -40c / -40f wilds of Vermont on a brief skiing vacation with the kids and some friends. Albeit at that temperature, I suspect less of the skiing and more of the ‘aprés’ skiing has been involved!

Ingredients? Strawberries & Chocolate

So, with a bit of time on my hands, a missing Mrs and some of the coldest weather in decades here in the US North East, I decided to make her a surprise Valentines Treat

This easy recipe is a wonderfully simple and fun way to jazz up berries and (one hopes) wow one’s loved one with your creativity. It might not beat a dozen red roses, but there’s a chance it will last a little longer. That is, if you can keep your family, friends (and dogs) thieving paws off them…..

Ingredients

1lb of Strawberries
12 oz of dark chocolate, or bitter sweet chocolate broken into pieces. 60% cocoa content, or more, is ideal but I used Callabaut Chocolate from Belgium at 54% and it worked (Note: you will only need just 6 oz of this, if you are using white chocolate too)
Optional: 6 oz of white chocolate broken into pieces (I used this on around half the berries)

Method

Air drying the berries

Wash the strawberries and air dry on a kitchen cloth (water will impair the chocolate shell you want to achieve)
If you are using both dark and white chocolate melt it in 2 Pyrex bowls over hot water in 2 saucepans, stirring occasionally until the chocolate becomes a smooth liquid, free of lumps
Allow the chocolate too cool off the heat slightly and then dip each berry in the chocolate holding the stalk
After covering each berry, place it on a parchment paper on a baking sheet and then place the sheet with the berries into the fridge to cool the chocolate
After around half an hour or so, warm up the remaining melted chocolate, remove the chilled berries from the fridge and drizzle with the remaining chocolate dark on white and white on dark etc (tip – I actually just used a fork to drizzle the warm chocolate)
Place back in the fridge to cool