Dark chocolate covered strawberries: u-pick, u-dip, u-impress.

I’ve always wanted to try making dark chocolate dipped strawberries. I think they’re the perfect dessert, healthy and satisfying. Dark chocolate, in moderation of course, is actually good for you and is loaded with antioxidants and fresh strawberries are… well duh, and if you can find them organic, even better.

The first thing I read about this process is that you need to know how to temper the chocolate before dipping the strawberries. Tempering is a process of heating and cooling chocolate to form stable crystals. These crystals then assure that the chocolate will be firm at room temperature. For a more complex understanding of tempered chocolate Wikipedia has a good scientific explanation of tempering on it’s chocolate entry.

I wanted to understand tempering better so I went to a demonstration from a trained dessert chef on how to temper chocolate. It took about a 30 minutes to temper the chocolate and while I watched I kept thinking to myself, “my readers are not going to want to do this”. She started with a pound and a half of chocolate (way more than I want to spend on quality dark chocolate) and used all kinds of fancy tools that the home cook wouldn’t have, including a large slab of marble. I had none of the tools she used and although I was tempted to run out and buy them and try the process myself, I knew that was silly and there had to be a simpler way.

This led me to the next part of this process, Google. I did quite a bit of reading on the subject of tempering chocolate and found lots of advice.   I settled on a process of tempering the chocolate called seeding. I will go over the steps and give a few hints but before I start you need to know, even if it doesn’t work, you can chill the strawberries and they will still taste great and your guests will never know the difference. But, if you can successfully temper the chocolate they will look beautiful and you will earn bragging rights.

 

You will need a quart of fresh strawberries. For the freshest strawberries I recommend that you pick them yourself; they’re in season now. I picked mine from the u-pick farm in Gregory, DeGroots Strawberry Farm. Pick them with the stems still on, that will make it easier for dipping and eating. If you just don’t have time to pick your own you can get them fresh and organic from the People’s Food Coop in Ann Arbor. Your chocolate should also be quality. I use 77% dark chocolate bars from the local chocolate maker, Mindo. I think the darker the chocolate the better.  If it is too sweet the strawberries might taste bitter. You can do this with two bars (I successfully tempered with only two bars) but the more you have the easier it is to do because the chocolate will heat slower and cool slower.

Before you melt your chocolate, wash the strawberries and dry them thoroughly. I’m serious; make sure they are bone dry. Chocolate and water will just be trouble.

Tempering the Chocolate:

1. 

   Break your chocolate into pieces and slowly melt about 2/3 of it in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water. When the chocolate is just about melted I pull the pan off the burner to slow the heating process a little. Once it’s melted, check the temperature. For dark chocolate you want around 115 degrees F. Do not over heat! Remove it from the saucepan and wipe the moisture off the bottom of the bowl.

2. Stir the melted chocolate with a rubber spatula, and stir like your life depends on it. As you stir, add the rest of the chocolate pieces bit by bit. Add some, let it melt, add some more. And keep stirring! The more it’s agitated, the nice-n-shinier it’ll be. For dark chocolate, you want to get it down to about 88°F.
3. Once the chocolate is close to the desired temperature (a degree or two above is fine) you’ll want to test it. Take a metal knife or spoon and dip it in the chocolate and let it sit for a couple of minutes. If the chocolate is tempered it will be hard on the outside, not tacky to the touch, a little glossy and not streaky or blotchy. If that is how it looks you have just tempered chocolate!
4. Now start dipping your strawberries. After you dip the strawberry, use the side of the bowl to carefully wipe excess chocolate off part of the strawberry (the side of the strawberry you will set it down on). This is so you won’t have too much chocolate or it will just pool up around the strawberry as it sits and cause you to have what is called a large “foot” around the strawberry. Lay them out on a piece of wax paper or parchment paper to harden.

 

I did this process when the chocolate tempered and when it did not. Both batches tasted perfect and to be honest with you other than being incredibly proud of tempering chocolate I couldn’t see a huge difference. The batch that didn’t temper was less glossy, got a little tacky when it warmed and had less of a crunch when you bit into it. Unless you are serving a tempering expert, no one will know. It’s still an impressive and tasty desert.

(Image above) The strawberry on the right was dipped in the chocolate before the chocolate was in temper. The chocolate coating is tacky and will harden after it is placed in the refrigerator. The one on the left was dipped after the chocolate was tempered and hardened minutes after dipping.

If you are looking for something to serve with the strawberries try this fresh mint whipped cream. It’s light and the touch of mint flavor is the perfect compliment to the chocolate.

Mint whipped cream

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, chilled

Directions:

1. Stir 1/3 cup mint, sugar, and 3 tablespoons water in small saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves.
2. Cook just until bubbles appear. Cover and remove from heat; let steep 30 minutes.
3. Strain syrup into large bowl, pressing on mint. Cool completely.
4. Add 1 1/2 cups chilled whipping cream to syrup and beat until firm peaks form.