Chocolate covered strawberries

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brendanemig

Assistant Cook
Joined
Feb 13, 2006
Messages
12
Location
Huntsville, Tx
My mom gave me a big white chocolate bunny for easter, but i'm not going to eat it. do i need to do anything to it while i melt it down for chocolate covered strawberries. it is about 1lb of solid chocolate.
 
LOL. What would your mom think if she knew you were melting down her gift? :)

If you want to make the chocolate covered strawberries, you'll have to temper the chocolate first. This is an irritating process, and you'll need some extra equipment to do it properly. If I were you, I'd just eat the bunny.

But if you're dead set on making the strawberries, first melt the white chocolate in a double boiler until it reaches at least 110 degrees F (you'll really want to use a good quality chocolate thermometer, but in a pinch, you can use a digital instant read instead).

Gently stir the chocolate until it has cooled to 95 degrees F. At this point, pour out 1/3 to 1/2 of the chocolate onto a marble surface (a metal surface, like the back of a baking sheet will work too) and spread it out with an incing spatula. Scrape it back and forth until it begins to thicken and set. It should have a pudding like consistency. Then mix the chocolate back into the bowl until it is a smooth. Repeat this process until the chocolate reaches 78 to 80 degrees F.

To test the temper, dip a scrap of parchment in the chocolate and fold it over. Within 5 minutes at cool room temperature (65 degrees to 70) it should set. The paper will peel off without taking any chocolate with it, and the chocolate should be clear and smooth, with no blotching or blemish.

At this point, you must warm the chocolate to a pourable consistency, which is about 86 to 88 degrees. Be careful not to heat it beyond 90 degrees, or you'll throw it out of temper and have to start over again. At this point, you can dip your strawberries or use the chocolate for whatever.
 
I'm useless at this techie stuff, why do you need to temper the chocolate and what would happen if you didn't?

I've made chocolate dipped strawberries many times and never tempered the chocolate, have I been doing it wrong?
 
wow chocolate foudue
so sinful... but i love it
but haven't try wif white chocolate before.
 
kyles said:
I'm useless at this techie stuff, why do you need to temper the chocolate and what would happen if you didn't?

I've made chocolate dipped strawberries many times and never tempered the chocolate, have I been doing it wrong?

Kyles,

Good for you! Wanted to send you an email regarding this, but you're not set up for it.


Kelly
 
PM me! Had nothing but trouble with the email when I was site helper!
 
Untempered chocolate is blotchy, and won't set very well or very quickly. It's not that you can't do it that way, but if you want it to set cleanly and quickly with that nice hard 'snap', it should be tempered.
 
Thanks for answering the question JasonR, I quite like the chocolate being less "snappy" on something soft like strawberries, but can see how for truffles or nuts etc that tempered chocolate would be better.

Tempering has always sounded really intimidating to me, and being a bit of a messy cook, I think it's one of those things that I'll never do. Not that I cook with chocolate much anymore, I sure do miss it!
 
haha! wow, it has been a while since i made those chocolate strawberries. it turned out to work just fine with a little whole milk and a double boiler (improvised of course, i am in college, well i was and now i'm a graduate student) i also mixed some semi-sweet chocolate morsels into the remainder of the white chocolate and made a second batch and dripped either white or the mixed chocolate onto the set strawberries to make them pretty. they were delicious, i think that if i had spent the time "tempering" they would have been less grainy, but that was a minor inconvienience and no one but myself noticed. probably won't do this again til next may when strawberry season is in again, but thanks for the help!

The Collegiate Chef:LOL:
 
I agree with Jason you must temper chocolate. I have a choc tempering machine that does it for me! Worth every penny when I dip my truffles and other centers. I like the crisp snap that you get with tempering.
 
The need for tempered chocolate

Greetings to all from a Newbie at the forum but an old hand at chocolate.

A lot more than "snap" occurs to chocolate when it is tempered. Probably most important is the "melts in your mouth and not in your hand" component. Properly tempered chocolate allows you to pick it up with your bare hands and not end up with goo all over them. With chocolate covered strawberries this may not be a big deal since most of us pick them up by the stem. With things like truffles and other preparations this is critical. Unless of course you want to have chocolate goo all over!

You can use recycled bunny chocolate but that is probably not "couverture" (the type of chocolate that needs tempering). It more than likely is coating chocolate. That is chocolate that has some or all the cocoa butter replaced with hydrogenated oils. Coating chocolate does not need tempering but the taste and "mouth feel" are totally different. Try coating your tongue with crisco and you'll understand how coating chocolate feels.

A simpler method for tempering uses a "seed" instead of tabling (the method described previously). With a seed, once the chocolate is at the upper required temperature you add a chunk of chocolate to cool it down quickly. Then remove it when it reaches the lower level. This is not as time-sensitive as tabling.

I just finished a batch of strawberries I am taking to a friend's July 4th BBQ. SO i am practicing what I preach!

Almost Chef Nate
 
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