If you can get long stems, do. It makes a nice presentation. Always wash and dry your strawberries right before you dip them. Use cold water and pat them dry with something super-absorbent (such as a paper towel). The reason is chemistry. Strawberries will soak up moisture it comes into contact with. When they take up water, they go bad faster. Unless you plan on eating them in one night, we want them to last.
Heat chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat, or simply melt in a microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring at the end of each cycle. If you use the microwave, don't nuke it until it's completely melted. It will cook the chocolate. We want it melted, not cooked. Now, I know that whisks are used to introduce air into food. We don't want air in our chocolate. I use a whisk, because I can feel the lumps better. Use what you like, but don't introduce any air into the chocolate.
I used Ghirardelli chocolate here. It's what I had on hand. It's perfectly acceptable. If you really want to splurge.... more about that in a minute.
Dip those berries, and set them on a rack to cool and harden back up. After the initial dip, I took a spoon and tossed some chocolate about to make stripes. I placed mine upside-down to keep as much of the chocolate on the berry as possible. I went over them twice, with both white and milk chocolate. I made a delicious MESS!
After these chocolate strawberries harden a bit, place them, in a single layer in the fridge. They will sweat a little onto your plate. Juicy, delicious strawberry sweat. Go ahead and use your finger to mop it up.
About chocolate. Milk chocolate isn't the ideal choice for dipping strawberries. It's good, but could be better. 60 or 70% dark chocolate is ideal. Especially if you're going to sweep some white chocolate over the bottoms. And the very best, indulgent chocolate to use? Hands down, it's Callebaut. It's pricey, but a special treat is necessary every now and then.
- 1 lb strawberries
- 12 oz chocolate
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