With Puffy Heart Day (Valentine’s Day) this Friday, I decided to make Mr. Fantabulous one of his favorite things in the world – chocolate covered strawberries. Something so simplistic but yet when they are done, they look absolutely gorgeous! Just a few simple ingredients and you have true decadence. These seem regal; elegant if you will. This is one of those things where I 100% agree that the quality of the ingredients truly does matter. You want fresh, firm, sweet strawberries that are cleaned. Now with the chocolate, you want really, really excellent chocolate. Please don’t use chocolate chips. It’s not the same. You want that chocolate, where even with just a small bite, you’re in love.
What I even love more about these chocolate dipped strawberries is the fact that it’s homemade. I love homemade gifts the most. Why? Simple really. It shows that you care enough about me to take the time to make something for me from scratch. It’s personal and truly from the heart. This to me would be the perfect homemade gift!
Now it’s funny as after I made these and finished up with the pictures, Mr. Fantabulous came out to the kitchen. Now as he’s approaching the kitchen he’s yapping to me about who knows what and the way I was standing, I was kind of hiding the strawberries. It wasn’t by choice but just happened to be the way I was standing. Well as I turned around to face him he looked me in the eyes, looked down to my left and saw these and then back up at my face only for that split second (long enough for him to realize what was beside me) and then the look of “OMG HONEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ARE THOSE FOR MOI????????” face was truly priceless. I honestly don’t think his eyes could get any wider and his smile get any broader.
I tried to play it cool but when that gorgeous face of his lights up like it did I just melt. Yeah I know, I’m a sap but he’s my baby and making him happy is the best thing I can do in life.
So I smiled and said “Yes baby, they are all for you.” Well I think he floated over to them and just stood there like a kid in the candy store, eyes all glazed over, grinning from ear to ear. Now knowing him I knew exactly what he was thinking. Not “Wow she really loves me” but rather “Hmmm, which one do I eat first – the biggest or the smallest. If I eat the smallest then I can eat 2 and then this way I can have this many over the next X days.” LOL
Needless to say that first day I think 3 of these puppies got swallowed whole by him. Watching him eat them is the cutest thing ever. He loves these. No seriously, he LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES these. Like if I make these and he offers you one you better realize just how truly special you are to him. I mean no one, NO ONE gets offered them… ever. And of course I was asked “Well wait, these aren’t for Valentine’s day right? I mean these are just a test batch for me to make sure the berries aren’t poisonous, right??? I mean I get ‘real’ ones on Valentine’s day… right? <blink blink blink>” LOL I can’t win.
So if you really want to make someone feel special or you know what, if you want to just treat yourself because you are THAT awesome, then make these! Now I keep these in the fridge due to it being fresh fruit. Leaving them out tends to make the fruit ripen faster thus they becoming soft and mushy inside.
Gourmet Double Chocolate Covered Strawberries
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Ingredients
- 1 pound of fresh strawberries with stems, washed and completely dry. *See note!
- 10 ounces good quality semi sweet chocolate, chopped
- 5 ounces good quality dark chocolate, chopped
- 3 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped *plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil (optional) – see note
Instructions
- Place the semi sweet chocolate and the dark chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
- Place the white chocolate in a separate heat proof bowl.
- Fill 2 medium saucepans with about an inch of water and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
- Place the bowls over top of the simmering water making sure the bottom of the bowl that has the chocolate in it does NOT touch the water.
- Gently stir each bowl until the chocolate melts. *See note to melt the chocolate in the microwave.
- Place a piece of wax or parchment paper down (this is where you will set your dipped berries to dry).
- Once the chocolate has melted and is smooth, remove from the pans start dipping!
- Grabbing the strawberry by the stem (or you could insert a lollipop stick in the top to help hold it, dip the strawberry in almost to the top (try not to get it on the stem/leaves) in the semi sweet/dark chocolate mixture.
- Pick the strawberry up and gently swirl it around (over top the melted chocolate) to allow the excess drip off.
- Hold it up for about 15-20 seconds so all of the excess drips off and then lay it down on the parchment paper.
- Repeat until all of the strawberries have been single dipped.
- Starting from the first strawberry dipped, dip again into the semi sweet/dark chocolate mixture allowing the excess to drip off.
- Allow to dry and the chocolate to firm up.
- If the white chocolate is no longer smooth, place over top of the simmering water and allow to re-melt.
- Once all smooth again, place the white chocolate in squeeze bottle to help make the drizzles. I find you have most control using a squeeze bottle. Or if you wanted you could use a plastic baggie. Simply fill it with the white chocolate, twist the bag at the top and push the chocolate toward one lower corner of the bag. Snip the corner with scissors, and apply melted chocolate by squeezing it through the hole.
- Drizzle the double dipped strawberries with white chocolate.
- If you wanted (and had extra semi sweet/dark chocolate) left over you could drizzle with that as well.
Notes
Types of strawberries:
You want firm and sweet strawberries. Don’t use soft/mushy ones.
White Chocolate
If you find that your white chocolate doesn’t get as smooth as the other chocolate, add a teaspoon of vegetable oil to it while it’s melting. This will help keep it smooth.
Microwave chocolate method:
Place the chocolate in a glass bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until melted and smooth. Watch the white chocolate as that can burn and seize quickly!
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