Chocolate Covered Strawberries

We live in the Salinas Valley, a prime location for growing strawberries. Every now and then I get a free tray of strawberries, but we are not really big fruit eaters at our home. So what do I do with all the free strawberries? I cover them with chocolate!

To make them, you will need the following…

A pound of fresh strawberries

Chocolate chips (white, chocolate, or the colored ones you can buy from Michael’s or Walmart)

Shortening

Parchment or waxed paper

A microwave

Some of your time

For this batch I used mostly white chocolate chips and some red chocolate chips that I had left over from chocolate flowers I made for a friend’s baby shower.

The first thing I did was wash the strawberries and then I drained them. Make sure that the strawberries are dry before coating them with the chocolate, as any amount of moisture will make your melted chocolate clumpy. I just wipe each of the strawberries with a paper towel before coating it with the chocolate.

After the strawberries were washed, drained and dried, I placed some chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and poured in some shortening. In this case, I used vegetable oil.

I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time. After each 30-second time frame, I would mix it with a spoon to make sure that the heat will be evenly distributed, and that the shortening blends with the chocolate chips. I do this several times until the chocolate is melted into a nice consistency, which is thick and liquidy. I add more shortening as needed to get the consistency I want.

In between the 30 second periods of melting the chocolate, I cut some parchment paper or waxed paper and lay it flat on the table.

When the melted chocolate is nice and ready, get a piece of strawberry, hold it by the leaf part, and dip it into the chocolate, rotating it gently so that all sides of the strawberry is coated, then lay it on the parchment or waxed paper. Repeat until all your strawberries are covered.

To give it a nice professionally made look, I add some drizzle. This is where the left over red chocolate chips come in handy. I melted the red chocolate chips the same way as the white chocolate chips. I even used the same bowl that still had some of the melted white chocolate, so the end result was pink! How pretty! I added more shortening, so that it is more liquid than the batch used for the coating.

To drizzle, dip the fork in the bowl and just whisk them back and forth over the coated strawberries, leaving a trail of long pink drippings over the white coating. 

I find that drizzling, not only makes the strawberries look more enticing, it also covers the imperfections from the initial coating. So whisk away until all the melted drizzling chocolate is gone.

Let the chocolate set, which is not a really long wait, and enjoy your strawberries. In our home, hardly any strawberries make it to the fridge for storage.

Easy to make for all you chocolate lovers out there, and a great way to make all of the people in our home to go eat some fruit! This is especially great just in case the strawberries you get aren’t that sweet. 

Note:

This is good to consume until the next day just store them in the fridge until you need them. I find that if these are stored for two days in the fridge, some liquid from the strawberries seep at the bottom, making your chocolate crack-ly when you eat them. If you, or your guests, do not mind this at all, then go ahead. You can still enjoy them anyways as the chocolate covered strawberries still taste great!