One fun and tasty treat requested often in my house are chocolate dipped strawberries. I have to admit that I don't mind when they are requested, because they pretty easy to do. It is also a great activity for including the kids in the kitchen. Let's not forget that they are unbelievably yummy too.
With Valentine's Day just a couple days away, I thought it would be fun to share our strawberry dipping experiences, as they make a fun treat and kids will be excited about helping make them for those they love.
The kids and I made these, "We 💗U!" dipped strawberries for my husband one year. He knew we had dipped strawberries, but didn't realize we had a special message for him. It was a cute surprise and the kids were so excited to share them with him!
The age of your children or their experience in the kitchen, will determine what activities they are able to assist with, but I think even the littlest hands can help with even taking the strawberries out of the container and placing them in the strainer to wash!
One of the most important tips in making dipped strawberries is that the
strawberries need to be completely dry. Any drop of water hits the melted chocolate and it will create problems. Still edible of course, but problems of clumping and hardening that leave them looking a little less pretty.
Wash your strawberries and set them out to air dry. After the strawberries have air dried for awhile, I typically pat dry with a paper towel, just to be sure.
Set up your dipping station at your table or counter. You will need a cookie sheet lined with a sheet of wax paper. This will allow you to easily transfer your newly dipped strawberries to the refrigerator to help harden the chocolate. Bring your plate of strawberries over to your station and grab a dishtowel or paper towel for wiping fingers.
Now it is time to melt the chocolate. In my opinion, it really doesn't matter what type of baking chocolate you use. There are special dipping chocolates available, which I find these tend to run higher in price. You can also purchase chocolate melts at hobby stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby in an array of colors (and can often use their coupons to help save on them) or you can simply use chocolate chips! I have used them all and I don't have a favorite. I typically just use what I have on hand and it all works fine. About 1 cup of chocolate (prior to melting) is plenty to dip a full pound of strawberries.
The second most important tip in making dipped strawberries is to
melt the chocolate slowly! Place your chocolate in a microwave safe bowl (unless using the special dipping chocolates, follow their instructions). The first melt in the microwave I start at 30 seconds (not much change will occur). Then stir. Then melt 10 seconds. Then stir. And keep repeating until completely melted. This is the process I use each time and it works perfectly.
Keep in mind that the chocolate will be fairly warm at this point, so older kids are probably best in helping with the next part.
With melted chocolate, head to your dipping station and work quickly, as chocolate will begin to get hard after awhile. Carefully grab your strawberry by the green stem and dip red part into chocolate, as deep as you want or as little as you want. I usually use the spoon I used to melt the chocolate to help in covering the strawberry where needed and "cutting" off the chocolate drizzle from the dip and then place on the waxed paper. That is it! Keep going until all of your strawberries are dipped.
Place your tray of dipped strawberries in the refrigerator to let the chocolate completely harden.
Now is the fun! Do you want to decorate your strawberries? There are so many possibilities on what to do. All the pictures of dipped strawberries in this article are a few of the ones that we have done. To decorate, melt a second color of chocolate (melting as recommended above). Only about a 1/4 -1/2 cup of chocolate is needed for decorating, depending on what you are doing. When chocolate is melted, spoon into one corner of a plastic sandwich bag. While pushing extra air out, and pushing all chocolate to one corner as pictured above, seal the bag. Carefully cut the very tip of the corner off the bag. It does not take a large hole to provide enough chocolate for decorating. Start small and cut bigger, if needed. If you go too big, you will have to get out a new bag.
Decorating can be fun for the kids to do! Keep in mind that the chocolate will be warm for a bit in the bag so mom or dad should help those smaller hands. They can squeeze the chocolate filled bag over the strawberries however they choose and have fun being creative. Or mom or dad can decorate and little hands can help add sprinkles or colored sugar to your designs. All sorts of possibilities.
Once done decorating, place your tray of strawberries back to the refrigerator to let the chocolate harden. Wasn't that fun and easy! Dipped strawberries can be stored in the refrigerator for approximately 2 days, covered. Yum! Enjoy!
To use up the remaining bits of chocolate after all strawberries have been dipped, I have started keeping a bag of pretzels on hand. I simply drizzle the chocolate over the pretzels, you could dip too if you want. Then when I am finished with the decorating chocolate in the plastic bag, I drizzle that over as well. The drizzled pretzels make a simple treat for lunch boxes or a quick treat at snack time. It is a nice way to use up every drop of chocolate. No one wants wasted chocolate!😋😍
