Simple Pleasures: Chocolate-covered strawberries
I have tried making chocolate-covered strawberries before, but with disastrous results. I took the shortcut and tried to melt the chocolate in the microwave. It works for the meltable candy wafers, right? It should work, even if you have to do it at low-power.
But it doesn’t. I couldn’t get the chocolate to melt evenly, and it seemed like it even got dehydrated in the process.
So this time, I did it exactly as I saw on the YouTube instructional video. I got out a pot of water, poured the chocolate chips into a Pyrex bowl and started the slow melting process.
I was thrilled as I dipped the spatula into the bowl and stirred around the smooth, creamy melted chocolate. It was the perfect consistency for dipping.
I inserted a toothpick into the top of the strawberries and rolled the berry from side to side to coat the entire berry. When I lifted them out of the chocolate, it was thick enough that there wasn’t any dripping. I placed them on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper, and the chocolate started to harden before I even put them in the fridge.
While the chocolate-covered berries were setting in the fridge, I melted some vanilla candy wafers in a Ziplock bag in the microwave. When it was nice and gooey, I reinforced a bottom corner of the bag with transparent tape and used some scissors to snip a tiny hole to drizzle the melted candy out of. Because of the consistency of the candy, I had great control as I drizzled it over the chocolate-covered strawberries. I was able to start and stop on each individual berry, instead of having to do a more continuous motion like I would if it was any soupier.
I am so happy with how they turned out. They looked great, tasted even better, and the process was easy and soothing. I think I’m definitely going to have to make more soon!
I wasn’t so lucky. Melting white chocolate for a Halloween dessert was harder than I thought it would be. But hey, it made the dessert look even scarier.
2-17-10 at 10:06 pm
LOL. Maybe there’s something different about white chocolate? For the white I used the candy melting wafers you can buy at craft stores. I just stuck that in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
2-19-10 at 11:33 am