Like many sweet lovers in Franklin County, Massachusetts, I make a pilgrimage each year in June or early July to Richardson’s Candy Kitchen in Deerfield for chocolate-covered strawberries. The store indicates that the strawberries have arrived by setting a giant fake fork spearing an equally fake strawberry on the front lawn.
The strawberries at Richardson’s are delectable. They feature a layer of filling between strawberry and chocolate that is particularly appealing. Of course, these treats have to be eaten within 24 hours—but my family never seems to have trouble with that rule!
The version below omits the filling since I have no idea how Richardson’s manages to put it inside the chocolate. The recipe merits making nonetheless. How can you go wrong with strawberries and chocolate?
I apologize for the vagueness of the list of ingredients. Basically, one uses as much chocolate as one likes (or has). I had a lot so I used about 1-1/2 to 2 ounces per strawberry, which was definitely excessive. Since I only make these treats once a year I don’t mind a little excess. But you may definitely use less chocolate than I did.
I suggest using good chocolate rather than chocolate chips. The chips fit around the berries very well since they have extra ingredients that make them congeal. Plain chocolate tastes a little better, however. And if you use white chocolate, make sure it is indeed white chocolate and not some white “confection.”
Ingredients:
strawberries to taste (you really don’t need more than 1 or 2 per person)
chocolate to taste—milk, dark, white, or a combination
Instructions:
Gently rinse the strawberries and drain them thoroughly.
In the bottom of a double boiler boil an inch or two of water. If you don’t have a double boiler, use a wide shallow pan such as a frying pan. Find a heat-proof bowl or saucepan to put inside. (Obviously, if you are using more than one chocolate, you will need more than one double boiler and/or set of pans.)
While the water is coming to a boil, chop the chocolate into small fairly uniform pieces. Turn off the heat below the water, and place the chocolate in a pan or bowl on top. Stir the chocolate as it melts over the hot water.
When the chocolate has melted, remove it from the water, carefully wiping the outside of its bowl or pan. Let it cool for a few moments so that it won’t make your strawberries go bad before you get a chance to eat them! Carefully dip each strawberry in the chocolate, holding it by the hull. Place the covered strawberries on a silicon- or wax-paper-covered plate to cool. As soon as they are at room temperature either eat them or pop them into a covered container to cool in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat them.
Enjoy within 24 hours.
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Oh my......
ReplyDeleteshould I?
Well, maybe just a few...
Chocolate covered strawberries are one of my absolute favorite treats - especially with fresh-picked local strawberries! Making them is also a family-fun activity. Yours look fantastic!
ReplyDeleteAll right, I did indeed wake in a grumpy state (and Connecticut, too, which only made it worse). I have no quibble with the recipe for chocolate covered strawberries per se, but recoil at the omnipresent idea itself. One can order these things online – they’re advertised on television and shown to be (apparently) steroid-enhanced red masses covered in a thick brown casing. They’re intended to be tributes to one’s mother or love interest.
ReplyDeleteTo take two of the glorious foods Mother Nature provides and do nothing to savor and appreciate each strikes me as disrespectful and obscenely indulgent. One can be deliriously happy with the bite of a ripe strawberry of traditional size (there was a time when strawberries were not the size of ham hocks) and one can enjoy the unctuous “mouth feel” and truly indescribable flavor of a good chocolate, but neither pleasure will be available to those who try for a double-feature. One’s taste buds can only serve one master, and a decision has got to be made. Flavors, which too often strike us as simple, are in fact quite complex and individual flavors are worthy of our full attention. One of the many perplexing facets of wine connoisseurship, or at least wine writing, is the tendency to try to invoke as many, and whatever, fanciful flavors fleetingly pass through one’s mind. Thank goodness one does not waste time analyzing one’s first summer bite of strawberry by thinking of every flavor that remotely resembles a strawberry. And with chocolate the impulse should be to relax and swoon, to enjoy the moment. Apparently this unholy marriage of chocolate and strawberry is a marketing ploy. Of course fruit and chocolate have been combined for ages, but with a delicacy and finesse that the current union lacks. Chocolate with just a hint of orange does indeed bring out aspects of chocolates mystery. Chocolate with chili pepper, a genuflection to Mexico’s mole sauces, does offer a diversion albeit at the expense of the chocolate’s fullest repertoire of flavor. [continued]
to continue: Is this faddish concoction the final evolution of some preposterous (but clever) idea Martha Stewart put forth in one of her early wedding books? And must it usually be done so badly? Classic strawberries and clotted cream is the apotheosis of summer civility with a heady undercurrent of indulgence and sensuality. Perfect for the Queen’s garden reception. Strawberries-drowned-in-chocolate is a has-been Las Vegas casino. Only one thing is worse and that is the advent of the tiers of liquid chocolate cascading ominously at wedding receptions. This is the sort of nonsense that would appeal only to the poor, addled bride and the underage ring bearer and flower girl, and were I the groom, I’d bolt from the reception and hope my Blackberry (free of chocolate coating) could reach a good divorce lawyer as he approached the eighteenth hole.
ReplyDeleteAs children we were offered three basic flavors, with the occasional, seasonal flavor made available for a limited time each year. Neapolitan ice cream offered the thrill of having one’s cake and eating it too, so to speak (for a metaphorically-challenged child). More discerning children quickly learned that it was best to pick a favorite and eschew the melted Neapolitan muddle of three flavors coalescing into a pinkish brown puddle. Wise children we were.
I like licorice and I like bananas and I see that they keep their distance. Pistachio ice cream with peanut butter sauce is an entirely different and private matter.
Oh dear - I have to admit to being a very bad girl - I melt my chocolate in the microwave - although you have to be careful not to overdo it or it goes grainy!! I love strawberries dipped in chocolate - and if Flaneur wants to taste a real delicacy, he or she (sorry don't know which) is very welcome to come and stay with me to taste Scottish strawberries, which are possibly the finest strawberries in the world - and our raspberries are even better!!
ReplyDeleteps - I guess I can share Bruce, Robert and George with you!!
Flaneur, you are always eloquent so I forgive you for disagreeing with me (and Frayed and Julie and Mattenylou!). I hope you'll like the next dish better............
ReplyDeleteFound you via the MHC Alum recipes site. I'm class of 2006 what about you?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this recipe looks delish, how could it not right?
Damaris--My graduation year changes annually so I can stay 39. I am, I have to admit, a teensy bit older than you are. But I can see from your blog that you are a sister in food as well as college.....
ReplyDeleteYum. Another winning posting. I think this delicious meeting of chocolate and strawberry is really great. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you there, Elizabeth. It's a pairing that's hard to resist!
ReplyDelete