With today being Valentine’s Day how about a few quick tips on how to make a nifty, indulgent treat at home – Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberries.
I have to confess that as a guy who spends most of his time in nutritional ketosis, I don’t consume near as much fruit as I used to. Enjoying some February strawberries really does seem like a treat, and we’ve extolled the luxury , and benefits of, modest amounts of good dark chocolate many times before.
There are hoards of recipes for this very treat floating around out there, and while dipping strawberries in good chocolate isn’t rocket science by any means, there are a tips that take your results from good to great. Thanks once again by the way to friend Chef Libby in Austin for her coaching and consultations over the years, including chatting about chocolate earlier this week.
Now to three tips to make your chocolate dipped strawberries the best ever.
The only really dip-able strawberry is a dry strawberry. Libby feels in particular that the most common reason chocolate dipped strawberries fail (and sometimes fail miserably) is that the fruit, including the green stems, have not been fully dried. She believes, as do I, that strawberries should be rinsed thoroughly, then dried carefully. Rinse (either with spray or in a bath) as per your routine, then dry each berry individually using paper towels (much more absorbent than woven towels). It’s also vital that you set the strawberries out to finish air drying for at least 30 minutes, sixty is even better.
To temper or not to temper your chocolate? While the art and science of tempering chocolate is beyond explanation in this post today, we (Libby and I) fall into the camp that tempered chocolate gives a far better, more consistent result for dipped fruits. The process isn’t very complicated – here’s a nifty, direct, and simple description of the process. And by the way, adding a teaspoon of a neutral oil adds gloss and softens the hardened chocolate ever so slightly so it doesn’t shatter when you take a bite of the coated fruit.
Finally, should you fancy your strawberries up with other coatings, or let the chocolate shine? Absolutely your choice, though Libby admits when she’s crafting a big batch of these for a catering gig, she’ll most often coat 1/3 with finely chopped nuts (pistachios and pecans being her favorites, and I used a bit of ground pistachio for these), leave 1/3 plain, and drizzle a contrasting melted chocolate over the final 1/3 (she suggests using a small “sandwich” plastic bag with a tiny section of a corner cut off like a miniature piping bag to decorate the berries).
2 pound medium strawberries
16 ounces good quality dark chocolate
1 tsp avocado oil
Optional
2-4 ounces “contrasting” chocolate
Chopped nuts (be creative)
Toasted shredded coconut
Wash and dry your strawberries very carefully as per the discussion above.
As noted above, melting chocolate can be done efficiently in the home kitchen a couple of ways – either using the microwave in short bursts (30 seconds, stir, then 15 seconds repeatedly until melted and smooth) or using a double boiler technique – using a pan set over another pan/pot of just barely simmering water. (See the comment about tempering chocolate above.)
Once your chocolate has melted, stir in the teaspoon of avocado oil until combined. Remove from the heat and start dipping.
Dip the prepped and dry strawberries into the chocolate, coating up to the shoulders of the berry, then gently scrape away excess chocolate using the lip of your chocolate bowl. If using, now’s the time to gently dip the coated strawberries into your chopped nuts or toasted coconut.
Place the berries on a parchment or wax paper-lined baking sheet, and let them cool and harden at room temperature until set. Chilling the strawberries in the fridge can cause some condensation problems; we strongly suggest leaving them at room temperature to set and consuming them the day they’re dipped.
Enjoy.
