Making Chocolate Covered Strawberries at Home!

People live very fast paced life today. Everyone is busy with their respective goals and jobs. To keep healthy you need to cultivate good habits. Exercise should be a part of daily routine. A person who does not have sufficient time for exercise during the weekdays must try to make up during the weekends.
Eating healthy food is important for keeping fit. Various kinds of diet programs are followed by people and stress is laid on healthy eating. Avoiding high calorie food and junk food all the time makes you crave for unhealthy food. What to do in this type of situation? Well, the answer lies in balancing your diet with different types of food items.
Eating fruits and vegetables helps a lot in maintaining our health. There are loads of delicious fruits like apples, orange, pear, melon, litchi, and strawberry which can be included in the daily diet. Similarly eating fresh vegetables regularly helps a lot in keeping healthy. Managing the diet with a judicious mix of fruits, vegetables and high fiber foods go a long way in keeping a person fit.
It is better to make your daily food interesting by varying it to make it appealing and tasty. You can make chocolate covered strawberries at home using simple ingredients. It is very easy to make them. You need to have the white chocolate, normal dark chocolate and some strawberries with their stems intact. Melt both the chocolates in separate bowls by placing them in hot water. You can melt them in a microwave oven too. Ensure that the syrup is smooth by mixing it well. Dip the strawberries in the syrup by holding it from the stem, shake to remove excess syrup and put it on a parchment paper to dry. Repeat this process with all the strawberries. Dip a fork in the white chocolate syrup and apply a little of it to the chocolate dipped strawberries.
There are various other methods of making chocolate covered strawberries. You can make it bi-color with equal portions of white and brown chocolate or make it totally white. There are many options available and you can make it according to your liking. Covering the strawberries with chocolate makes them tastier and they get used up pretty soon. If you do not wish to make them at home, then you can buy then readymade from the many stores which stock them.
Chocolate covered strawberries make an excellent gift which can be given to all. This is a suitable gift for all from kids to the elderly. They can also be included in wine baskets. Many wine baskets contain gourmet chocolates. If you wish to make an unique basket for your friends or relatives, you can select suitable brands of wine and put these chocolate dipped strawberries with them. Your friends will truly love and relish them.
This type of strawberries can be used even at small gatherings at your place or during festivals when the extended family gets together. You can serve them during your kid's birthday party too and all your little guests will savor them. This can serve as a healthy snack between meals and you can rest assured that your kids are eating healthy fruits.

You cannot go wrong with chocolate covered strawberries because chocoloate is generally loved by everyone.

On Making Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Creating your own chocolate covered strawberries is a fun family activity as well as a romantic activity to do as a couple but it is also an easy fancy centerpiece that is certain to leave an impression at dinner parties. People often ask how to create chocolate covered strawberries after trying to do it alone and having the project go completely awry. The reality is that there are a couple of tricks that make creating artistic chocolate covered strawberries much less stressful!
The first step in making good chocolate covered strawberries is to collect your ingredients. You will need:
Fresh strawberries - the ideal location to find fat and perfect strawberries is Whole Foods market, Fresh Market or your local Farmers Market. Always try to pick brighter strawberries as that are firmer to the touch and have no soft or dark red patches, this will make them better for covering with chocolate as well as make them more pleasing to the eye.
Two tablespoons of shortening or butter - this gets mixed with your chocolate to make it thinner as well as to create a much softer chocolate coating after the chocolate has set.
A box of toothpicks - these will be placed in the berries and used as "handles" for dipping as well as provide a way to dry and cool the berries without leaving flat patches on them.
A piece of Styrofoam - this will be used to place the ends of toothpicks in and 'hang' the strawberries while they dry preventing flat patches of chocolate coating. You can purchase Styrofoam for a couple of dollars from your local craft store.
12 oz good quality semi-sweet or dark chocolate - AVOID USING MILK CHOCOLATE / CANDY BARS. You will have better luck using chocolate chips or chocolate disks because they melt uniformly and make for a smoother chocolate coating.
Step 1 - Delicately rinse off and carefully dry each individual berry. One popular way to wash berries is to wet a paper towel and by holding each end of the towel roll the berries one at a time to rub dirt off gently on the moist towel. Strawberry skin is particularly sensitive so make sure they are dried carefully, this can be done in the same method as above using a dry paper towel. It is up to you as to whether you want to leave leaves and stalks on your berries. Usually professional berries are left with stalks and leaves intact. Make sure to throw away bruised berries.
Step 2 - Slide a toothpick carefully in to the top of every berry without piercing the bottom of the fruit.
Step 3 - Put your chocolate and shortening or butter in your double boiler. Melt the mixture slowly stirring occasionally to make sure that you have a smooth and consistent chocolate for dipping.
Step 4 -Turn off the boiler since chocolate burns easily but work at a fast pace because as your chocolate cools down it will start to get hard. If your chocolate does start to harden you can slowly warm it up again using your double boiler.
Step 5 - Holding the berry with the toothpick you are going to dip the berry in the warm melted chocolate mixture. Twist the strawberry when it is submerged in the chocolate to make sure that the chocolate soaks in to the seed pits on the berry.
Step 6 - Pull the strawberry out of the chocolate and twist it slowly and consistently to rid it of excess chocolate and prevent excessive dripping.
Step 7 - If you want to add other extras to your berry like sprinkles, coconut etc. you will do that step now by dipping your strawberry in the topping or hand sprinkle the topping on the berry. If you are trying to add white chocolate drizzle you have to wait for the original chocolate shell to harden before drizzling any additional chocolate decoration on the berry.
Step 8 - Stick the end of the toothpick into the Styrofoam so that the berry can dry.
Step 9 - Let the chocolate shell cool on the Styrofoam until the berries have come to room temperature.
Step 10 - If you are looking to add additional drizzle to your berries now is the time to do it.
Step 11 - Cover your room temperature berries with plastic and gently place them in the refrigerator. The plastic wrap over the berries helps reduce sweating that tends to occur on strawberries when they are cooled in the refrigerator.
Step 12 - Your berries are ready to serve!

have fun and enjoy ! 

How To Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries? 

Here's how to make delicious chocolate covered strawberries. First of all ensure that the strawberries you are intending to use are dry, then allow them to be room temperature warm prior to making them. After the strawberries have been covered in chocolate, put them in your refrigerator to cool, but do not store them in the fridge. Consume within 1-2 days.
It is very important to ensure that the strawberries are dry, as a small amount of water is enough to make the batch curdle. Strawberries dipped in chocolate can also be injected with a suitable liquor after the chocolate has hardened. It is best to use a syringe to inject the strawberries with the contents.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries Recipe
Ensure all ingredients are at normal room temperature.
This recipe makes 15 chocolate covered strawberries ( approx )
Ingredients To Use:
4.5 tablespoons of cream ( heavy variety )
9 ounces of bittersweet chopped chocolate
15 strawberries
1.5 tablespoons of butter
Follow These Steps:
1. Line a baking sheet with foil or paper that is wax coated
2. Melt the butter and the chocolate in a boiler over hot water, stirring all the time until the chocolate has melted. Add cream to the mixture and stir until smooth consistency. Allow the mixture to cool
3. Pick up each strawberry by its stem and dip it into the mixture you have made. Allow any excess mixture to go back into the pan. Place the chocolate covered strawberry on the paper and repeat until you have made 15 strawberries.