Chocolate-Covered Strawberries – A Beautiful Mess

The combo of sweet strawberry and hard chocolate shell are a classic for a reason and we’ll show you how to make your own easy chocolate-covered strawberries with just a few simple steps. You only need two ingredients to make a chocolate covered strawberry, but you can also customize it by adding your own favorite toppings if you really want to make it a gourmet treat.

Whether it’s Valentine’s Day, a romantic date, or just a plain old Tuesday night, chocolate-covered strawberries are an easy treat that only take minutes to make (or you can make our Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Jello Shots for a fun twist).

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What strawberries are best for chocolate-covered strawberries?

When choosing your strawberries, you’ll want to consider:

• Size: Large or small strawberries will work for chocolate-covered strawberries. The only difference is that you’ll get a larger chocolate-to-berry ratio with a smaller strawberry than a larger one, so if your favorite part is the berry, choose larger options, and if you love chocolate, you might want a smaller berry to dip.
• Color: You’ll want to look for berries that are red all the way up to the green stem for optimal strawberry flavor. The more white you see on the berry, the less intense flavor it will have.
• Freshness: Choose firm berries that haven’t started to get mushy or have soft spots. If you have a few in your container that have soft spots, you can always cut off that section and dip what is still firm to get the most of your berries.

Ingredients for chocolate-covered strawberries:

• Melting chocolate: While you can use baking chips (Ghirardelli baking chips are a popular favorite), we like to use chocolate melts in milk or dark chocolate since you don’t need to temper the chocolate for it to harden properly. A lot of grocery stores carry both of these options, so check the baking aisle to see what they have and this option already comes in a microwaveable container.
• Fresh strawberries: Fresh berries are best for chocolate-covered strawberries, so look for large firm berries that are red all the way up to the green stem.
• Optional toppings: Chocolate-covered strawberries are delicious as-is, but you can also sprinkle or drizzle other toppings on top to customize your berries and take them to the next level.

How to Make Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Prep your plate and toppings: Prepare a large plate or baking sheet with wax paper to add your berries onto when dipped and chop up or prepare any toppings that you want to add to your berries so they will be ready to go before the chocolate sets.

Wash your berries: Rinse your berries and thoroughly dry your berries very well. You don’t want any water to interfere with the chocolate sticking, so dry, dry, dry to remove excess moisture.

Melt your chocolate: You can melt your chocolate on the stove, or in the microwave! If you don’t have a double boiler, see instructions below for how to make your own. If you want to thin out your dipping chocolate a bit, do so once the chocolate is fully melted.

• In microwave: Melt your chocolate for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each session, until chocolate is fully melted. Don’t heat it longer than you need to though to avoid overcooking the chocolate.

• Over stovetop: Fill the bottom of a double boiler saucepan 1/4 full with water and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and add to saucepan. Add your chocolate and stir often until chocolate is just fully melted. If you don’t have a double boiler, see instructions below.

Dip your berries: Take your clean berries and hold them by their green stem. Dip berries into the chocolate and let the excess drip off the end before adding any additional topping and placing them onto your wax paper.

Allow berries to cool: Once your berries are on the wax paper, push them forward about 1/2″ to avoid the chocolate pooling at the tip of the berry and let the chocolate set. The chocolate will set at room temperature, but you can also put them in the fridge for 15 minutes to speed up the process as long as you take them back out afterwards.

What toppings go best with chocolate-covered strawberries?

While toppings are a personal preference, we love to add:

• Drizzled chocolate: Melt and add a contrasting chocolate flavor (like white chocolate) to a small ziplock baggie and cut the tip off of the baggie to drizzle melted chocolate over your berries once your initial layer of chocolate has set. Or you can also just drizzle the melted chocolate off a spoon back and forth!
• Sprinkles or nonpareils: If you want to add some color and a little extra crunch, sprinkles or nonpareils are a great choice.
• Shredded coconut: Finely shredded coconut adds another layer and you can lightly toast the coconut in a dry pan for extra depth of flavor.
• Chopped nuts: Finely chop your favorite nuts and sprinkle them over the chocolate before it sets.
• Crushed Oreos: Crush up a few Oreos and you’ll get a delicious topping to sprinkle over your berries.
• Mini chocolate chips: For the chocolate-on-chocolate lovers, add some mini chocolate chips to really punch up the chocolate flavor.
• Crushed pretzels: It’s like eating a chocolate-covered pretzel and chocolate-covered strawberry at the same time—yes, please!

How to make your own double boiler:

If you don’t have a microwave, or a double boiler pot set, you can make your own set up with just a saucepan and a heatproof glass bowl!

• Fill a saucepan 1/4 full with water and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer.
• Add a heatproof bowl that’s just big enough to have the bottom of the bowl sit in the top of the saucepan and traps the steam from the water below, heating the bottom of the glass bowl.
• Add your chocolate and stir often until the chocolate is fully melted.

Tips for Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

• Make sure your berries are totally dry before dipping to ensure the chocolate adheres to the berry properly.
• Bring your berries to room temperature before dipping if you take them right out of the fridge. Otherwise, the berries will start to sweat a bit from the temperature change and your chocolate won’t set as well. Just leave them on the counter for 20-30 minutes.
• Use toothpicks stuck directly into the tops of each berry to use as a little handle while you dip if there’s not much stem to hold onto.
• Use sprinkles or colored chocolate to match the colors of holidays or parties to serve these year round.
• Try dipping your berries in white chocolate for a spin on the classic flavor.

How to store chocolate-covered strawberries:

Chocolate-covered strawberries are best eaten that day (or within 24 hours), so you can either leave them out at room temperature for up to 6 hours until you eat them (away from heat or sunlight so they don’t melt), or you can put them in the fridge after that in a single layer uncovered. Just give them 30 minutes at room temperature to warm up before serving.

Freezing chocolate-covered strawberries does not work well as the berries will break down and will be mushy once you try to bring them back to room temperature.

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