Chocolate dipped strawberries???

[pancake]

I need help, I have a serious problem with those

I love them for special days, and I watch them done on TV--easy as pie.. I tried them yesterday and before.. what a disaster

The chocolate coating will NOT stick on the berry, it drops on the wax paper and only a thin layer of chocolate is on the berry. Then I kept douple dipping and triple dipping to make it thicker and it came out very sweetened and sugary and STILL a thin layer of choclate? Help !!

Another problem, I used the Nestle brand White chocolate chip and melted them over a double boiler with a bit of cornsyrup. It is not WHITE like the ones you buy in gourmet stores It's like Beige or off-white in color, even with all the 6 dippings of strawberries on each that I had to do in order to get it entirely coated. It is NOT white.. why ??

Thanks for any help

 

[jkath]

I use dipping chocolate for my strawbs.

You can buy it in squares (looks like baking chocolate) and it's made primarily for dipping. You don't mix it with anything, just heat in a dipper. (or in a pan over boiling water if you don't have a dipper)

There's a thread about that...lemme go look for it - I posted a photo...

 

[Alix]

Think the corn syrup might have been the culprit here, and the type of chocolate used. What you did would be wonderful for just dipping fruit in and leaving the chocolate soft. (Like chocolate fondue sort of)

If you want to make this easy on yourself try to find some special melting wafers. They will melt easily and then harden nicely on the berries.

 

[jkath]

Here's an excerpt from an older thread -

As for the dipping, I use chocolate that is specifically made for dipping. It comes in solid form, and cools within minutes to a very hard coating.

Here's a link to it:
www.candiquik.com/ Products_cq.html

 

[BigDog]

It's amazing the variences in chocolate. Not only in the flavoring but the consistency as well. Chocolate dipped fruit is wonderful, and I'm glad you asked this question as it would have baffled me the first time I tried!

 

[pancake]

OMG I had no idea

jkath, thank you for the links and for letting me know!! I always thought it's made with regular chocolate chips.

Alix, thanks. I'll look for those too!

Any other tips I should know before attempting this again??

Thanks!

 

[jkath]

I love my chocolate dipper - it's worth having, and the chocolate absolutely never burns or gets too cold.

Another yummy - dipped marshmallows!

 

[BigDog]

I love my chocolate dipper - it's worth having, and the chocolate absolutely never burns or gets too cold.

Another yummy - dipped marshmallows!

Stop already! I have another hour before lunch, and yer killin' me with the fruit and marshmallows dipped in chocolate!

 

[jkath]

so, I shouldn't tell you about the goodies I made at New Years then...

Nilla Wafer topped with a slice of banana and 1/2 of a marischino cherry.... then dipped in milk chocolate

Okay, I won't....

 

[Alix]

Bananas! Then dunk 'em in peanut butter. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

As to more tips...nope, thats about it. Just make sure you get the right kind of chocolate for the job and you are all set. I learned that the opposite way. I bought wafers for a chocolate fondue thing. Sheesh. What a mess.

 

[corazon]

I've dipped strawberries in semi sweet choc chips before and they turned out great. Another tip, make sure your strawberries are completely dry, or else the choc slides right off. Happy dipping!

 

[kadesma]

Think the corn syrup might have been the culprit here, and the type of chocolate used. What you did would be wonderful for just dipping fruit in and leaving the chocolate soft. (Like chocolate fondue sort of)

If you want to make this easy on yourself try to find some special melting wafers. They will melt easily and then harden nicely on the berries.

Alix,
do you think the melting wafers, would work for cookies..What I want to do is take a fork and drizzle it back and forth over some lemon and orange shorbread cookies I've made..I want it to harden quickly. I had to waste several of them with the chocolate bar I melted, it doesn't want to set up and is still soft.

Thanks,
kadesma

 

[Alix]

Yep, they would be perfect.

 

[fireweaver]

ghirardelli makes a wonderful melting chocolate, which you can buy in a big box that makes it look like a ginormous bar that's been marked into rectangles. and yes, your strawberries come out **SO** wonderful when you use good quality chocolate to start with.

blasphemy warning: i have always melted this stuff in a pyrex dish in the microwave, never used a double boiler. put melting chips or bars into the dish, microwave for only 35ish seconds at first, try to stir, then keep nuking in 10-20 sec increments, stirring in between each.

after dipping fruit, or drizzling melted chocolate over those cookies, place dipped objects on a wax-paper covered cookie sheet or cutting board, and into the fridge. chocolate will set firmly very quickly.

to make it all look ever-so-professionally-fancy, buy both regular (dark or milk) and white chocolate. if you're dipping with regular, after all is setting on the wax paper'ed board, melt a tiny bit of white and drizzle it in thin lines or zig-zags over the regular. not really enough to taste, just looks incredible. reverse is also true for dipping in white & drizzling regular chocolate. after decorating, set them all into the fridge to set as one candy shell.

other things that dip well:
prezels - dip one small loop and the bottom big loop, leaving the other small loop to hold on to. after it's set, so you can hold the dipped part, dip the remaining small loop in the other type (regular or white).
dried apricots - stuff a whole almond into the slit the pit was removed from. press slit closed and dip that end 2/3 into chocolate, so that the pretty color contrast between apricot & chocolate is not completely covered over.
nuts - best way to use every tinsy bit of chocolate you've melted. take all the chocolate that is left in your pyrex dish/boiler after dipping, toss in a small amount of cashews or walnuts, stir to coat thoroughly, and scrape out with a spoon to form little dollops of nut clusters.