Strawberries and Chocolate

Strawberries are often associated with chocolate as the ideal culinary combination and although there are many complex and divine dishes we have here some basic yet delightful combinations

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Ingredients

•    1 punnet ripe strawberries
•    1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or block of cooking chocolate (broken into 1cm² pieces)

Preparation

Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminium foil. Wash the strawberries and dry them thoroughly (even a slight amount of water will send chocolate gritty). Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave them until they melt, stirring every 45 seconds. It should take about 2 minutes. Holding a strawberry by the stem, dip it in chocolate, twirling it in a circular motion to evenly cover most of the berry. As you lift it from the chocolate, twirl it so that any excess chocolate drips back into the bowl. Place the berry on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining berries and chocolate. Once all of the berries are dipped, refrigerate them for 30 minutes to set the chocolate and then serve.

You can place the berries on a skewer to dip giving the effect of a strawberry flower

Try coating with a secondary darker or lighter chocolate or once the chocolate layer begins to set decorate with chopped nuts, coloured sprinkles or baby marshmallows.

You may be thinking why would growers be adding chocolate to this already perfect fruit, well we are all just human and why not acknowledge that we all love a bit of extra sweetness in our life