Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Need a last minute Valentine's idea? Make your own chocolate covered strawberries for your sweetheart!

Chocolate covered strawberries are a popular gift for Valentine's day. They can be a little pricey if you purchase them, so I always opt to make my own. All you need is a good-quality chocolate, fresh strawberries, and some white chocolate for drizzling.

To ensure that the strawberries stay nice and fresh, I wash them in a 4-to-1 solution of water and vinegar (you can find more details on the method here). Allow the berries to soak for a little bit, drain, and pat dry with paper towels. Washing the fruit with a little bit of vinegar kills bacteria and helps the berries stay fresher, longer.

To melt the chocolate, I prefer to use the double-boiler method but have included microwave instructions if you opt . No matter which way you do it, you need to stay right by the chocolate--don't walk away! Semisweet or milk chocolate is best for melting. I've tried to use dark chocolate, but it does not melt as well. You really need a chocolate that has enough fat to melt to the right consistency. Once the chocolate is melted, dip your strawberries and decorate with melted white chocolate.


Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh strawberries
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
• 4-5 ounces white chocolate chips

 Directions

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. Rinse strawberries and pat dry with paper towels (you can find my method for washing fruit here).

2. Fill a medium size saucepan one-third of the way with water. Bring the water to a light simmer. Pour semisweet chips and a smaller size saucepan and place saucepan into the simmering water. Once chocolate begins to melt, stir continuously with a rubber spatula until melted and smooth.

3. Dip Strawberries into melted chocolate and place on parchment paper. Melt white chocolate chips in the same manner and pour into a small Ziploc bag. Cut off one corner of the bag and pipe melted white chocolate onto the dipped strawberries. Refrigerate strawberries for 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. Enjoy!

Microwave instructions: Place chips into microwave safe bowl and microwave on medium to low power in 15 sec increments. Stir well after each increment until chocolate is smooth. This should only take 30-45 seconds total for the amount of chocolate used.

Hershey's Cocoa Fudge Sauce

Rich, homemade fudge sauce. The perfect topping to any sundae!

We had a family barbeque last night for our holiday weekend. It was the typical menu with burgers, brats, potato salad, slaw and baked beans. Man, was it good! There's nothing like the first summer barbeque.


When it comes to summer desserts. I like to keep things simple. For our dinner last night, I made some homemade brownies and let everyone create their own sundae with vanilla ice cream and various toppings. No brownie sundae is complete without some rich, hot fudge. This hot fudge recipe is one my mom has made for many years. It's from the 1934 Hershey's cookbook and has always been our "go to" hot fudge recipe.

It's so simple and takes no time at all. Don't buy store bought chocolate sauce...make this sauce now!

Ingredients

•  1/4 cup cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• A pinch or two of salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a saucepan, whisk all dry ingredients together. Add corn syrup and milk and whisk until incorporated. Bring to a boil over medium heat for 5-7 minutes*.
2. Remove from heat and stir in softened butter and vanilla extract. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Cool completely before storing. Store in the refrigerator up to two weeks.
Yields: 1 1/2 cups of sauce
*The cooking time depends on the consistency you like. For a syrup-like consistency, cook for 5 minutes. For a fudge-like consistency, cook for 7 minutes.

Source: Hershey's 1934 Cookbook Revised 1971 Edition

A special thank you to the men and women who have paid the ultimate price for our country. They are the reason we live in this blessed country. To that I do not say "happy" memorial day but, "thank you" for the sacrifices you have made for our freedom. God bless America.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies have to be my favorite sweet treat. They're addictive! I recently came across this recipe via Pinterest. I had heard of "The New York Times" cookie recipe before but had never tried it. I'm always interested in trying new chocolate chip cookie recipes so I figured I would give this a shot. The cookies are crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. The recipe suggests adding a sprinkle of sea salt on the top of each cookie. I thought it may be weird but it actually gives it a nice sweet/salty combination.



New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
from The New York Times

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups minus 2 tablespoons Cake Flour
• 1 2/3 Cups bread flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt (I used sea salt; original recipe calls for 1 1/2 teaspoons)
• 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) of butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 24 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (Original recipe calls for 20 ounces, I had a 24 ounce bag so what's an extra 4 ounces?)

Sift dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.

Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment*, cream butter and sugars together until light in color and fluffy. About 5 minutes. Reduce speed and beat in eggs, one at a time and mix well. Stir in vanilla. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined, about 10 seconds. Stir in chocolate chips. Refrigerated dough for minimum of 24 hours and up until 72 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Scoop 2 tablespoonful** of cookie dough  onto cookie sheet for each cookie. Lightly sprinkle the cookies with sea salt and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown. Allow cookie to cool on cookie sheet slightly, transfer to wire rack and cool, or eat warm!

*I used my Kitchen Aid Stand mixer. You can use any stand mixer, hand mixer, or beat by hand.
**original recipe calls for 3.25 ounces balls and cooking for 18-20 minutes. I like slightly smaller cookies so I opted for 2 tablespoons of dough.

Helpful Tip: This cookie recipe makes a lot of cookie dough. Too much for just my husband and I alone. I bake about half the dough and froze the rest for a later use. I prepared the balls of dough and froze on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Once frozen, I put the cookie dough in a gallon size freezer bag. A week later, I needed a quick snack to take to a friends house and I whipped these out in no time!