- Today, I'm gonna teach you how to turn these into these.
(chuckles)
Hey everybody, it's Natasha of natashaskitchen.com.
We're making chocolate covered strawberries.
Here's everything you need to know
from melting chocolate the right way
to get that crisp shell,
to a whole bunch of different ways to decorate.
This is gonna be a fun one.
Let's get started.
(hands thudding)
You'll need two pounds of fresh, large strawberries
with the stems attached,
rinse those under cold water,
then make sure to pat them dry thoroughly
with a paper towel.
If the strawberries are wet,
they're more likely to get mushy faster,
and chocolate does not stick well to wet strawberries.
Because this step is so important,
I'll dry each strawberry individually
making sure to get under the leaves.
Arrange your dried strawberries on a platter
and if you want to you can skewer them
for easier dipping and cleaner drying.
Just about any size skewer will work,
and I will link to the ones I'm using in the recipe notes.
Insert a stick into the base of each strawberry
and set those aside.
Once your strawberries are prepped,
it's time to melt the chocolate.
You'll need 12 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate.
You can use either real chocolate chips or chocolate bars.
The best chocolate for dipping strawberries
is real chocolate.
You wanna look for cocoa butter in the ingredient list.
If you're using chocolate bars use a serrated knife
to quickly chop it up into small pieces.
Now I'm gonna show you the right way to melt
or temper chocolate.
Add two-thirds of your chopped chocolate
to a medium-size mixing bowl
and set aside the remaining one-third of chocolate.
Now we're gonna melt that chocolate over a double boiler.
To make your own double boiler,
you'll need a saucepan with barely simmering water
at the bottom.
Once the bowl is on the saucepan, you want to make sure
that it's not touching the water.
So it's just sitting directly over the steam.
I have about an inch of water in the saucepan
and I've heated it to barely a simmer,
you don't want it boiling.
Now, place the bowl of chocolate over the steam.
Again, making sure it's not touching the water
and heat it to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit
or until the chocolate is nearly melted.
Make sure the mixture never goes
above 120 degrees Fahrenheit or you can burn your chocolate.
Now, take it off the heat and right away put
in the remaining one-third of your chopped chocolate.
Now stir continuously until your chocolate mixture
is well melted and reaches about 88 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit
which is the ideal chocolate dipping temperature.
I'm also gonna be dipping some of my strawberries
and decorating them with white chocolate.
To melt white chocolate place all of your chocolate chips
or chopped chocolate bar into another mixing bowl
and place it over the double boiler until it's melted,
then stir until it's smooth.
Once the chocolate mixture reaches
about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, you can stop stirring
and it's time to dip the strawberries.
Whether you're using a skewer or not
here is how to dip a strawberry.
Start by pulling back all of the leaves on top.
This will ensure that the leaves
don't get coated in chocolate.
Now dip the strawberry and roll it around
until it gets an even coating.
If you're using skewers, you can place them
into a foam board to dry.
This way when they set, they won't have
that foot at the bottom.
If you decide to dip your strawberries without the skewers
simply roll them in the chocolate
and then set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
They will still look beautiful this way, but note
they will have a flat side once they're dried.
We're gonna dip several more into that melted chocolate
and keep in mind if you want to add anything
like chopped nuts or sprinkles or crushed cookies,
you want to do that while the chocolate is still melted
so they can stick to the chocolate.
Now we're gonna have fun with that melted white chocolate.
And if at any point the chocolate gets too firm for dipping.
You can just place it right back over the double boiler
until it's melted.
Here's one of my favorite and really easy decorations
for chocolate-covered strawberries
and that is a tuxedo strawberry.
Dip about half of your strawberry
into some melted white chocolate.
We're gonna do a few of these
and there's no need to coat completely in white chocolate,
you'll see why in a moment.
Set those aside and we're gonna let those cool
for a minute or two in the refrigerator,
just until the chocolate sets up.
While those are chilling
I'm gonna dip a few more strawberries
in only white chocolate
and with the white chocolate covered strawberries,
I do love to add some fun sprinkles,
which is really great for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day
or any special occasion.
(soft music)
Another fun decoration with white chocolate
covered strawberries is some colored sanding sugar.
And I have some pink sanding sugar here for Valentine's Day.
I like to pour any remaining melted white chocolate
into a Ziploc bag and we're gonna use that
to drizzle over the firmed strawberries.
Here's a quick tip.
If you notice your white chocolate starting to firm up
while it's in the Ziploc bag,
heat a damp kitchen towel in the microwave
for about 30 seconds then place it
over the bag of white chocolate.
That'll keep it warm and easy to drizzle.
Snip off the corner of your Ziploc bag
and that white chocolate is ready for drizzling.
Now that our chocolate-covered strawberries are set
and firmed up I'm gonna show you
how to finish those tuxedo strawberries.
To make the jacket start by dipping the back
of the strawberry into the melted chocolate.
Now dip the sides of the strawberry
creating a V-shape in the front.
Let the excess drip off then set it aside to cool.
All right, we're gonna show you once more.
Dip the back of the strawberry into the melted chocolate
then dip it on the sides forming a V-shape.
Now to finish off our tuxedo strawberries,
dip one end of a skewer into the melted chocolate
and paint on some buttons and a bow tie.
I also love decorating chocolate covered strawberries
with melted white chocolate.
You can add simple stripes or overlapping patterns.
It's fun to get creative here.
(chuckles) It's kinda ugly. (chuckles)
Once all of your strawberries are decorated,
you can either let them set at room temperature
or quick set them by putting in the refrigerator
for about five minutes.
If you have it any melted chocolate leftover,
you can keep it to reuse.
Since the white chocolate's already packaged up
we're just gonna set that aside and let it firm up.
Now for the melted semi-sweet chocolate.
I like to spread that over a sheet of plastic wrap
then let it cool and firm up.
Once it's firmed up, you can store it
and melt it again later.
You can tell if your chocolate was properly tempered,
once it's dried,
if you break it it'll have a nice snap to it.
All right, these are chilled
and you really just need to keep 'em
in the fridge long enough for them to firm up.
And if you've heated and tempered the chocolate correctly
when you touch it,
it's not gonna be sticky to the touch
and it's not gonna leave fingerprints.
So they'll look better, which we love.
(chuckles) All right?
And there are several ways to serve these
and you can do it any way you like.
Get creative.
You can put them on a platter
or you can put them into a little jar,
keep them on the sticks.
And I just have this filled up with coffee beans
and just put the sticks in like a little bouquet
which is really pretty for Valentine's Day or Mother's Day.
Or you can put them into a little gift box like this
and give it as a gift to somebody.
So any way you like to serve it.
I'd love to hear your ideas in the notes too,
if you've seen any cool creative ideas.
So we're just gonna put them on a platter right now.
And we are gonna do the taste test
cause I can not wait to sink my teeth into one of these.
Semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate is just mm,
a good combination.
(chuckles) I'm craving chocolate.
Can you tell? (chuckles)
Okay, here we go.
All right it is taste test time, my favorite.
(chuckles) Okay and I'm gonna just, I'm, oh...
I have something in my hair, styrofoam.
There's styrofoam everywhere. (chuckles)
Be careful do not to eat the styrofoam, okay.
(chuckles) All right. I'm gonna go for the tuxedo strawberry
cause it has a good combination of white chocolate
and dark chocolate.
So that's what we're gonna do.
Here we go, well, that's a big one.
I'm excited. (chuckles)
This is such a treat and really simple to make.
I mean seriously, okay.
Mm, come to mama.
(chocolate crunches)
Mm, chocolate and fruit there's just something about it.
It makes my mouth water and then chocolate-covered fruit,
Oh, (chuckles) this is good.
That crisp chocolate shell on the outside
with a juicy strawberry center.
This is seriously delicious.
And I'm gonna get my little taste testers in the scene
because I think they want some strawberries. (chuckles)
Oh, taste testers.
All right, here they come.
It's like a stampede. (chuckles)
I just had to say chocolate covered strawberries.
You guys ready for the taste test.
- Yay.
- Yeah, Okay, pick which one's your favorite.
Oh, look, they're both going for the white chocolate.
(chuckles) It's the sweeter one.
Whoa, sprinkles, sprinkles everywhere.
What do you think?
- Good. - It's so good.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Oh, (chuckles) all right.
That was fast.
How many did you take?
I'm gonna go enjoy my strawberry here
and hope you guys love this video.
We will see you in our next episode of Natasha's Kitchen.
- Oh, got an extra one.
- Whoa, w...