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Chocolate Covered Strawberries?


jbauer

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I'm trying to make chocolate covered strawberries.

I melted semi-sweet chocolate w/ a little cream and dipped the strawberries.

Is there a better way to get the chocolate to stick to the strawberry?

I tried throwing them in the freezer for about 10 minutes after dipping them,but the chocolate didn't stick as well as I've seen other chocolate covered strawberries.

Is there someone who can help me ?

I need to make them on thursday and I don't wanna look like a fool!!!!

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J--if you're trying to dip strawberries into a mixture of melted chocolate and cream, well, stop trying. Cream brings it more toward a "ganache" and will remain soft and/or spoil.

If you know how to temper chocolate--pick a semi-sweet couverture with a high percentage of cocoa butter (something like Cacao Barry "Favorites mi amere" 58%) and dip your strawberries in that. It's the only way to do it well.

If you don't know how to temper chocolate, don't want to or work for a typical country club or caterer which doesn't expect you to, you could try to pass off a version of chocolate-dipped strawberries in something called "chocolate glaze," which is a disgusting faux-chocolate product that has had all the cocoa butter removed and replaced with a vegetable oil--and hence does not need to be "tempered." You can try creating a version of this yourself by adding oil to melted chocolate--and the resulting dipped strawberry will be thinner and set up somewhat--but not so firmly as with real tempered chocolate--and also won't be as good to eat and won't hold as well. Usually glazes like this are made with the poorest quality cocoa mass--the dregs that are cheaper than the stuff that goes into the cheapest candy bars.

What chocolate are you dipping into?

What are you making them for and how will they be transported or presented?

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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Also, make sure you dry off those strawberries. If you don't you'll get a moisture barrier that make the chocolate crack and fall off when someone takes a bite into one.

Extra Info:

I like to marinate my strawberries in a good ruby port wine in the frig for a day. Then dry them off and reserve the port marinating liquid. Melt and temper (to the best of your ability) some dark bitter sweet French Vahlrona Chocolate. Dip them and put them on wax paper in the frig.

Take the reserved port and reduce it on the stove w/ a bit of sugar until you get a syrup, then chill it. Serve the chocolate covered strawberries w/ a dollup of homade fresh mint infused whip cream and drizzle the whip cream with a bit of the port syrup. To die for!!

(mint whip cream: pour heavy whipping cream in a bowl and add some fresh mint leaves that have been roughly chopped and bashed w/ the back of a knife, let it sit covered in the frig for a few hours, strain, whip and add the smallest bit of conf. sugar)

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J--I'm not sure yet what kind of event or client or party you're planning to do these for--but an end-around your situation, especially if you're at all worried about tempering or getting these strawberries perfect--is to consider doing a fondue instead.

That way you can use an excellent, inherently flavorful chocolate--and you won't have to temper it or bastardize it.

Set up a station where you can melt and hold a melted chocolate dipping mixture over simmering water, in a stovetop bain marie for instance--and then invite guests or kids to dip their own strawberries or little squares of pound cake into the chocolate fondue--and then have a few little bowls of ground up goodies and spices which can be sprinkled on--like caramelized almonds, ground pistachios, ground cinnamon, sea salt, rice krispies--you name it--whatever you think your audience would like.

You could follow APPS suggestion and have a little squeeze bottle of a mint infusion or Port syrup--which is pretty easy to make yourself--to spritz on the pound cake before dipping.

Just a thought. might be more fun than the strawberries dipped by themselves and easier to pull off in this heat.

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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I have found that if you use good quality dark chocolate you don't have to temper it if you are in a rush . It sets fine.

The tip about drying is very important though.

How sad; a house full of condiments and no food.

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I agree with Polly. Use some good quality chocolate and it really doesn't need tempering. Just dip the berries and let them dry on some parchment or wax paper in the frige. Then, when they are dry, melt some good white chocolate and with a fork drizzle a little back and forth on each one. It makes a pretty pattern and gives them a "finished" look.

Good Luck!

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jbauer - So, how did they come out?

J--I'm not sure yet what kind of event or client or party you're planning to do these for--but an end-around your situation, especially if you're at all worried about tempering or getting these strawberries perfect--is to consider doing a fondue instead.

That way you can use an excellent, inherently flavorful chocolate--and you won't have to temper it or bastardize it.

Set up a station where you can melt and hold a melted chocolate dipping mixture over simmering water, in a stovetop bain marie for instance....

Steve - Could you outline the correct procedure for a chocolate fondue? We did this recently and used a high-quality dark chocolate. Jason wanted to add some rum (we put in about 2 Tbs to 8 oz choc), which we did when the chocolate was in the process of melting and it seized up. I ended up having to add butter to get it to melt properly. The end result was good, but I would have preferred to not add the butter. What are the proper ratios if you want to add liquor to the melting chocolate?

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Chocolate covered strawberries... I've probably made a million of these babies.

First I'll let you in on a little, behind the scenes pastry-chef secret. We never wash strawberries. Take your strawberries (the larger the better) straight from the fridge, dip them in melted (not tempered) bittersweet "couverture" quality chocolate to about half way up the strawberry, and place the berry onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. When the sheet is filled, put the berries back in the fridge.

Now, if you want to make them loook REALLY good, take the cold, once-dipped strawberries and dip the tips in melted white chocolate. Put them back on the baking sheet and chill them again until the white chocolate is set. Trust me, double dipped strawberries look a heck of a lot better than once-dipped. Triple-dipped strawberries are a bit much.

If you're feeling really artistic, you can start with the white chocolate and then dip twice in dark chocolate at angles to make the strawberry look like it's wearing a little tuxedo. You would of course then have to pipe on a little bow tie. This is about as silly as strawberry dipping gets, but there's no denying the "WoW" factor with certain crowds.

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I do a slightly altered (lazier) version of this. I dip the strawberries once in very good dark chocolate and let them set in the fridge. I then melt a small amount of white chocolate and then do a quick drizzle--more of a splatter action--of the white chocolate over the entire sheet pan of once dipped berries creating random design.

This desert is so easy to make and tends to impresses my friends.

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Is there anybody else out there who would rather not eat them? I don't like the taste of chocolate against the acidic quality of the berries. Slather them with cream for me, please. Preferably clotted....

( Also, I prefer them washed, after conducting an experiment a few years ago with my then-8th grade son on berries , testing the pesticide levels on them....wash your produce!!!)

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Quote Polly: " I have found that if you use good quality dark chocolate you don't have to temper it if you are in a rush "

??????? Cocoa butter is cocoa butter if you melt it above 92 degrees F regardless of the price or source you will need to temper it or it will not end well.

Quote Foodie 52: " Is there anybody else out there who would rather not eat them? I don't like the taste of chocolate against the acidic quality of the berries. Slather them with cream for me, please."

Me!

P.S. I have made hundred and hundreds of chocolate dipped strawberries at various locations and have ALWAYS washed the berries, set them out on towel lined perf pans to dry.

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Foodie--one of the only things I like less than chocolate dipped strawberries--I, too, dislike them even if done well--is chocolate dipped strawberries with champagne--a terrible pairing even if you use a demi-sec or rose, which is only mildly more successful than the usual brut champagne pairing.

But then, my palate has never understood the pairing of chocolate with champagne. I've always written that myth off to marketing synergy.

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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But then, my palate has never understood the pairing of chocolate with champagne. I've always written that myth off to marketing synergy.

I agree - chocolate should be eaten with port.

Champagne should be served with cracked black pepper potato chips (from Terra Chips). A match made in heaven :smile:

I'm also not impressed by chocolate covered strawberries. They look pretty, but usually the big strawberries are completely tasteless and don't have the flavor and sweetness to stand up to the chocolate. I do enjoy the chocolate strawberry charlotte from the Cake Bible, so the combination can work if balanced properly.

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  • 1 year later...

I have absolutely no experience dipping anything but found this thread. The other night I put chocolate in my strawberries, the chocolate was a 70% bittersweet that I mixed with just a little creme fraiche and filled them with (they were to eat immediately in the privacy of my home).

i5716.jpg

Now of course they looked very unprofessional, but the strawberries wer quite flavorful and they tasted delicious. I thought about the possibility of dipping these in white chocolate.

Pumkin Lover then tried it:

I tried making the chocolate strawberries with the white chocolate dip. Everything was going fine until some of the filling started getting into the white chocolate. Soon enough, the white chocolate thickened up with the residual creme fraiche (in some cases, the dark chocolate filling completely dropped out of the strawberry, and I think a lot of the CF fell into the white chocolate). I ended up slapping the white chocolate on the rest of the strawberries with a rubber spatula, and the chocolate wasn't so white anymore, but that's okay.

Things I'll do differently next time:

1) Pipe the dark chocolate more tightly in the strawberry...perhaps I should have used bigger strawberries.

2) Chill those strawberries once I stuff them with the dark chocolate mixture. That way, when they hit the heated white chocolate, the filling won't melt so quickly.

3) I've never made choco-dipped strawberries before, so I wasn't sure if I should have made a ganache; I ended up just melting some white chocolate and went from there. If I had used a ganache, or at least a glaze, I have a feeling the chocolate wouldn't have seized up so quickly, and would have been a lot thinner for dipping. I don't know a lot about what or what not should go into chocolate--do you think I should have made a ganache/glaze?

Maybe I should put this in the baking thread. Anyway, I thought you should know about this before dipping those gems in white chocolate. 

So I'm putting this in the baking thread. I would like to know if anyone had done this, and can they add tips?

-Lucy

Edited by bleudauvergne (log)
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I, too, have dipped a million berries (as well as dried fruits).

I've also stuffed them. Two good ones: whipped Boursin cheese; and whipped cream cheese containing honey and finely chopped nuts.

Hey, maybe for my next party, I'll do a Strawberry Platter:

Dipped

Boursin

Bleu's chocolate stuffed

and honey nut.

Thanks for the idea!

Laurie

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I've also stuffed them.  Two good ones:  whipped Boursin cheese; and whipped cream cheese containing honey and finely chopped nuts. 

HOO MAMA, that sounds good!

Thanks, Bleu, for moving my quote over here. Reading this thread, I've realized some things:

1) I probably don't know how to temper chocolate. I melted my chocolates in a double boiler. Once the chocolate melts, how long do I let it go to "temper"? What exactly does that mean? I assume it goes beyond just "melting"?

2) Someone mentioned using semi-sweet chocolate with a high cocoa butter content. Isn't white chocolate all cocoa butter?

I'm definitely going to try this again. It was soooo goooood, although the strawberries didn't look so great. :rolleyes:

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I'm another one that agrees with foodie52. I've always felt that the two flavors of chocolate and strawberries kind of butt heads. I don't care for them. The exception would be white chocolate dipped or the way we do them at work by the semi-load (literally, guys) at Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. We use cone-coat that we buy in #10 cans by the case which is fairly close to magic shell ice cream topping. It has a much milder flavor that I feel accentuates the berries instead of overpowering them. It also helps with the condensation on the outside when they are put in plastic containers and put in the cold cases at the stores alongside the fruit trays and such.

Pamela Wilkinson

www.portlandfood.org

Life is a rush into the unknown. You can duck down and hope nothing hits you, or you can stand tall, show it your teeth and say "Dish it up, Baby, and don't skimp on the jalapeños."

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I've done them both way, tempering, or not. Lately I've been using cocoa barry extra dark amer, I think, melts nice and fluid. If they're kept refrigerated, they don't seem to bloom. And like others, I think, so what? I'd rather eat a little lemon curd tart with a strawberry on it.

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Well, as it happens I do like Chocolate and Strawberries ...but I think there's something even better.....

Since I don't see that anyone's mentioned it here, let me share my favourite ......serve up a plateful of beautiful fresh strawberries, along with bowls of sour cream and brown sugar. First dip in sour cream, then in brown sugar. It's right up there in the "sinfully easy-food of the gods" category.

--Jan

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  • 4 years later...

i want to make choc covered strawberries...i thought i had to do somehting other than just melt the choc and dip?? do i have to do something special to the choc to make it shiny??

Edited by sabg (log)
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I believe to get the chocolate shiny you need to temper it, but I can't give you directions on that front... The Pastry and Baking board is likely to be a better source -- searching on there for tempering will probably bring up more information than you ever need!

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I believe to get the chocolate shiny you need to temper it, but I can't give you directions on that front... The Pastry and Baking board is likely to be a better source -- searching on there for tempering will probably bring up more information than you ever need!

Demo here for milk chocolate tempering. Go 2º C higher for dark chocolate for the temperature to which you cool and reheat the chocolate.

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