Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Ingredients
  • 1 package of fresh strawberries
  • 1/4 cup or a little more of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/8 cup or a little more of white chocolate chips (optional)
  • Vegetable oil
  • Two bowls that are larger than a medium sized saucepan
  • 2 saucepans, or if you want to alternate the bowls, just use one instead
  • Wax paper
  • Room in your fridge!

Instructions
PREP!
  1. Wash and dry the strawberries! Long stemmed strawberries will be super helpful for this recipe, but if you can't find those, find ones with large and intact green tops, they work just as well, too!
  2. Prepare a super flat plate or cutting board and put wax paper on it.  Your strawberries need to cool on these and then transferred to the fridge later.
  3. Over medium heat, fill the pot with enough water so when the bowl is set on top of it, it won't spill.  this is supposed to work as a double boiler for those of you that don't own fancy cookware.
CREATE!
  1. Pour the semi-sweet chocolate chips into the bowl as soon as "double boiler" warms up.
  2. Mix the chocolate, if you feel like there's not enough chocolate, add more.
  3. Add in drops of vegetable oil into the chocolate.  Use sparingly! This is supposed to help the chocolate keep it's viscosity levels low so when the strawberries are dipped, it won't harden right away.  This is not going to affect how the chocolate hardens in the fridge.
  4. Stir consistently and lift your utensil to see how much the chocolate's melting.
  5. Once the chocolate is fully melted, lower the heat of the stove top.
  6. Take the washed and dried strawberries and dip them in one at the time.  Hold the stems or green tops firmly and dip.  The amount of chocolate you want on it is entirely up to you.
  7. Shake off excess chocolate and lay the strawberries on wax paper.
  8. Set aside and remember to put them in the fridge once the chocolate starts to set on the strawberries.
  9. Once they're chilled, you can technically eat them right away!
DECORATE!
  1. If you must, you can decorate the strawberries with white chocolate like in the picture, too.
  2. Prepare the "double boiler" in the same way, use a different bowl for the white chocolate though!
  3. White chocolate will harden faster than the semi-sweet chocolate so go ahead and use more oil to get the consistency you want for a drizzling effect.
  4. Stir constantly.
  5. Lower heat as soon as you achieve the right melting point.
  6. Take a fork and dip into the white chocolate and drizzle it over the strawberries.
  7. Set aside, let cool, then put into fridge until fully set.
  8. Enjoy!