[Valentine] Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

It's my neighbor's birthday today.  Happy Birthday!  And it's Valentine's Day.  Happy Valentine's Day!  And her husband just left for boot camp about a week ago.  So I wanted to do something nice for her and a few of my other friends as well.

I love chocolate dipped strawberries.  But I do not love the cost of buying them at the store.  Have you seen how much they are charging???  Really??  Upwards of $2 per berry.  That's just wrong.  Let's make our own shall we?

You will need some berries.  It's still winter in these parts.  The strawberries aren't as perfect as they will be in a couple of months.  But most grocery stores do get a shipment from somewhere for Valentine's day.  I happened to find some on sale at my local grocery store.  You will want to gently wash them.  And then make sure they are dry.  Water and chocolate do not mix well.

Melt some chocolate discs.  I prefer Guittard Milk Chocolate.  But certainly use whatever you like best.  I melt mine in the microwave on 40 percent power for 30 second intervals until the chocolate is smooth and creamy.  Stir between melting intervals.

Dip you strawberries into the chocolate and place them on a parchment or a silpat lined cookie sheet to firm up.  To avoid splotches and stripes, pop your cookie sheet into the freezer for a minute or two after dipping.

Take the strawberries out of the freezer and let them come to room temp. This will prevent the white chocolate stripes from falling off of your berries.

While your strawberries are warming up a bit, melt some white chocolate discs in a small ziploc bag.  Once again, I use 40 percent power for 30 second intervals.  Squish your bag until the chocolate is creamy and there aren't any lumps left.

Now snip the corner off of your bag and drizzle the chocolate over your berries.  Let the chocolate solidify.  I was able to get fourteen chocolate dipped strawberries for about $5.00.  That's around 35 cents per berry.  Now that's more like it!

Now package them up all cute-like and take them to a friend.  They will be so glad that you thought of them today!