mulberryshoots

Although I’ve experimented with dipping fresh strawberries twice so far, I wouldn’t be able to claim that they were “divine.” The first batch was made on the spur of the moment when I had some leftover strawberries and some milk chocolate leftover from Christmas stockings. They were good but not great.

The next time I made them, I thought I’d try out a Ghiardelli dark intenso chocolate bar with nuts and sea salt.  These tasted good but looked terrible, the nuts and sea salt giving the strawberries a gloppy appearance.

This time might be a charm. Hope so anyhow. I found that strawberries come in different assortments: most have HUGE strawberries that are mostly white on the inside. They’re also too big for a single morsel to eat. So, instead of springing for the big “organic” strawberries, I look for a grower who packs medium sized RED strawberries (or mostly red.) You might be surprised how hard this is to find.

Today, I bought two packs of these medium strawberries for less than $2.00 a box. I then went to the candy aisle, as strange to me as going to the desert, and looked over the chocolate bar selection. I selected Lindt bars: a deep intense dark chocolate and what looked like “white” milk chocolate. I also picked up a small packet of chopped hazelnuts to toast up in a pan before sprinkling over the strawberries.

I also discovered that melting chocolate in a double boiler type set up is almost always awkward to handle and unnecessary. The second time around, I melted the broken up chocolate bar in a white ramekin in the microwave. Setting it on one minute at a time, the chocolate melted by about the 2nd heating. I then tilted the ramekin so that the melted chocolate pooled onto one side of the ramekin and dipped the strawberries to their collarbones.

When I was ready to start the dipping project, I opened what I thought was “white” milk chocolate only to find out it was milk chocolate which was medium brown and not white. At the store once again, I couldn’t find any bars of white chocolate although I had seen one at the other store this morning. In the baking section, I came upon some Ghiardelli white baking chips.

Here’s how they turned out: the intense dark chocolate was so dark it was almost bitter to the taste. I mixed some dark with milk chocolate and it tasted good. The white chocolate was delicious too. I briefly toasted the chopped hazelnuts in a small skillet and let it cool. Spooned bits of them over the chocolate-dipped strawberries.

In disposable aluminum pans with plastic covers, laid out on white doilies that I came across in the pantry last week, they look gorgeous! Couldn’t be easier to make – most of the effort is picking out the chocolate you want to use! Voila!