Pot Luck Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

[livingdeb]

Yesterday I made chocolate-covered strawberries to bring to the party. This was not entirely successful.



They were extremely messy and I made too much chocolate. I layered the strawberries as best I could between pieces of waxed paper in a container and brought along the extra chocolate.

The hostess had plain strawberries cut up, and so some people just dipped those in the extra chocolate I brought. This worked extremely well, so this is how I recommend that one bring chocolate-covered strawberries to a party. Then there is the added bonus of being able to dip other party foods into it, like cherries and even crackers and cheese. (Hey, I'm just noting what I saw.) Or if you prefer your strawberries plain, you have that option, too.

Another idea is to bring chocolate syrup. I saw this at a gourmet dinner party thrown by a co-worker. To tell you what kind of dinner this was, one of the things on the menu was lasagne. For each serving, the hostess had layered the cheese and stuff on a lasagna noodle and then rolled it into a spiral.

For dessert, she brought out orange sections and bowls of chocolate sauce for each person. This was a big hit, and people asked for her recipe for the chocolate sauce. She explained that you needed a can opener and a can of chocolate syrup. (And nowadays you can buy it in a squeeze bottle if you prefer.)

An advantage of chocolate syrup is that it will stay liquidy throughout the party and not need to be reheated the way the chocolate for chocolate-covered strawberries does, but it's thinner, so it's more likely to drip.

The recipe for the chocolate covering is 16 ounces of chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons of butter, melted together and stirred.

Comments

[p-j-cleary.livejournal.com]

I used to have to dip strawberries for Godiva when I worked there. If you don't have a tempering machine, I suggest you get good chocolate (Ghiradelli, Godiva, or even the new good Hershey's specialty chocolate is okay), warm it over a double-boiler, let it sit until the top glistenes a little bit, and then dip.

Don't set down on waxed paper; use a rack with a grid (like a cookie-cooling rack), as extra chocolate won't puddle that way. The extra butter makes the chocolate stay soft, which is always a trouble. With pure chocolate (and just a small coating, helped by the rack), you'll have the best dipped berries of any party.

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the hints. I'll still keep the chocolate separate for parties, but this is good for lunch at work. Oh, yeah, chocolate-covered strawberries at work.

The chocolate did actually set at room temperature, but it took a couple of hours, and I stupidly didn't start working on these until right before the party.

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

Chocolate-dipped strawberries.... Yum..... Actually, it was B who brought the plain fresh strawberries. We provided the grapes and cherries, which also worked very well dipped in chocolate.