Chocolate Covered Strawberries Recipe

Valentine's Day has me thinking about making chocolate covered strawberries. These sell very well at the places that make them during certain holidays, but especially Valentine's Day. People will even spend a lot of money on good chocolate covered strawberries to give as a gift to the person they love, or to just buy for themselves. Whether Valentine's Day or any day of the rest of the year, you can't go wrong with this fun and beautiful treat.

What a great idea to make these yourself and give as gifts or have out as appetizers or desserts for get together? You will impress anyone that you share these with, I can almost guarantee it. I know I would be having a big smile on my face, if you brought a couple of these to my door! What kind of return can you get on any other recipe that only calls for two ingredients? The enjoyment alone is worth it!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Recipe

Ingredients:

Approximately one pound of fresh strawberries. Get the largest ones you can find with the longest stems you can find.

Six ounces of semi sweet chocolate chocolate, chopped up into small pieces.

Optional - Have some white chocolate for making white chocolate covered strawberries or to use as a drizzle on the semisweet chocolate covered strawberries. They are beautiful.

Directions:

Make sure that you do NOT cut off the stem of the strawberry. In fact,the more stem there is the better, for chocolate covered strawberries. They will look even fancier, and are a built in "handle" to hold your beautiful treat!

Wash the strawberries thoroughly and allow plenty of time to dry. You can let them drain off in a colander or paper towels. I let the them dry in a colander and also then lay on paper towels to make sure all the water is gone. The water and chocolate do not mix well.

While strawberries are fully drying, line a large cookie sheet pan with parchment paper or waxed paper. To have ready for after the chocolate is melted.

Take your semisweet chocolate and put into some heat proof medium sized bowls and set aside. Next, take a medium sized pan with just a couple inches of water in the bottom. Bring this water to a simmer over medium heat. If it is boiling, the steam and spurting of water can wreck the chocolate creations you are about to make. So turn off the heat after it has reached a simmer, and put your bowls of chocolate over the hot water. It will slowly melt. Stir until the chocolate is smooth.

Once the chocolate is melted and smoothed completely, remove from the heat.

*Alternate Heating Method

You can melt these chocolates in a glass dish in the microwave, but it isn't my first option or suggestion. Try melting for 30 seconds to 60 seconds, but make sure not to let scorch. Remove the chocolate, and stir which will help the rest to melt. Do not overheat or it will cook and burn the chocolate. Once smooth, you can allow to sit to slightly thicken up a bit.

Finally, take your dried strawberries by the stem, and dip the bottom half (or a little more) of the strawberry into the melted chocolate. If you twist the strawberry just right as you take it out, you can get a cute little "tail" at the end. Set the strawberries on the parchment paper lined pan.

Repeat until your strawberries are all finished. It is that easy!

**Another fun option, is to have some white chocolate to melt after the whole process is done, and drizzle a little bit over the semi sweet chocolate covered strawberries. These turn out beautifully! I have used a spoon and just tried to get a thin stream going back and forth over the berry.

Enjoy!