Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Grapes

By Yong Suk Ferrance, Fuqua Partner

Valentine's day is coming soon. What is a better treat for your special person on that special day than chocolate covered strawberries?

...Well, homemade chocolate covered strawberries, of course. And grapes too. Grapes with chocolate? Yes, not common, but once you've tasted them you will be dipping just about everything into chocolate to see if it can compete with old faithful.

Now I will take you through the steps and even add in a few inside secrets to make sure your special treat goes off without a hitch.

First of all, we need to select the fruit. I will let you in on my secret to selecting the best fruit possible. Here it is... I always ask for help at the grocery store. Additionally, make sure your strawberries are not too big, have stems, and are a color of medium red. Grapes are a lot easier. I've found that green seedless taste the best, but it should go without saying that seedless is essential. You don't want your special day to turn into an emergency room visit for a chipped tooth.

Here are the rest of my V-Day treat secrets. Make sure your fruit is extremely dry before dipping. Any remote moisture will keep your fruit naked no matter how long you keep them in the chocolate. Naked fruit, yuck! Lastly, make sure you keep stirring and remove the mixture from the heat as soon as everything is melted so you do not burn the chocolate. Also, the vegetable shortening is essential as it keeps everything sticking together.

OK let's get started...

Cooking tools:

Medium sauce pan
6 inch wooden skewers (large toothpicks work fine)
Parchment paper or Wax paper

Ingredients:

10 Strawberries with stems attached, dry (cannot have any moisture on them or chocolate will not adhere)
20 Green seedless Grapes
2 Cups semi sweet chocolate chips
2 Cups milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 Table spoons all vegetable shortening

Directions:

Mixture:

Put the chocolate chips and shortening in the cold sauce pan. Turn the burner on Medium heat and stir constantly. As soon as the mixture melts IMMEDIATELY remove the pan from the heat and continue to stir until the mixture is smooth (about 5 minutes). Now for the fun part. Let's get ready to dip.

Dipping:

Delicately using your fingers, holding each strawberry by its stem and dip into the mixture gently rotating until the strawberry is covered about 75%. Set each strawberry onto the paper when complete, to dry. The chocolate will ooze off a bit, but it's fine. Just leave enough room so that it does not run together with its neighbor.

Stick three grapes on each skewer (only one on a toothpick) making sure to leave room for your fingers. Dip into the mixture just as with the strawberries, except that you can completely cover the grapes (wooden skewers don't break as easy as strawberry stems. Set on the paper next to the strawberries.

Let dry for 30 minutes in your fridge. Enjoy!