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Step 5Techniques: Decorating
After all of your strawberries have been dipped go ahead and carefully remove the colander with the bowl in it and set it aside. If you want to decorate your strawberries then this step is for you. Otherwise you better hope that whomever receives your strawberries never finds out about this Instructable.
Take a pie plate and either with a knife (like in my case) or the fork poke a few holes in it. Check and make sure you have an inch or so of water left in the pot. Place the pie plate upside down on top of the pot. Did you place your opposite colored chocolate in a plastic sandwich bag? Now would be a good time to do so while you wait for the pot water to boil.
The idea behind this is that since a bowl has already been dirtied a second bowl would be adding to the problem. So why not melt the chocolate in a sandwich bag instead? When you are done you can just throw it away. Besides, if you by now after reading this paragraph opted to instead reach for another bowl consider this: you will have to transfer the contents of the bowl into the bag anyway to do the kind of decorating I am talking about. You choose.
I can see it now:
Cooking in a sandwich bag and just how much plastic is entered into my system will be a hotly debated issue in the comments below. So lets talk a little here.
"Chocolate melts at body temperature, about 95 to 100 degrees F." LINK
I am sure everyone has gotten chocolate on their finger before.
Sandwich bags are made of polyethylene.
LINK (page 7)
LDPE (Low Density Poly-Ethylene) melts at 248F.
LINK
Besides I am merely assisting the rapid melting of the chocolate by flashing it with steam, I am not, nor do I recommend that you boil or otherwise cook the bag and contents for prolonged periods of time.
(Stepping off my soapbox)
OK where was I? Ah yes, decorating. Needless to say I melted my chocolate in the freezer bag. For those of you who are looking at their sandwich bags right now don't worry, those work fine too. I melted the chocolate by placing it on top of the pie plate for a few seconds on each side and kneading the contents until a smooth consistency results.
For those of you who used another serial bowl, melting is just the same as the dip. Good luck transferring it to a sandwich bag. Tip: Get a second set of hands (hope you have kids!).
Pick one of the lower corners of the bag and snip off a tiny bit with scissors or a knife. Pick up the bag with the upper opposite corner and twist until you hold in your hands the very tool that cake decorators use. Squeeze a little onto the wax paper you laid out earlier, if the string is too tiny cut a larger hole. Be careful here because if you cut off too much at one time you will ruin the bag. You want to shoot for a string a little thicker than a rice grain.
When you are all set go to town on those strawberries. Just blindly going over all of the strawberries yields surprisingly good results. To step it up a notch you could pick three or four grouped strawberries and go in straight lines. Going one step further and going the opposite direction will make a checkerboard pattern. Heck, make little dots while you are at it. Be creative.
After you have decorated put them in the refrigerator for an hour or two to harden the chocolate.
Take a pie plate and either with a knife (like in my case) or the fork poke a few holes in it. Check and make sure you have an inch or so of water left in the pot. Place the pie plate upside down on top of the pot. Did you place your opposite colored chocolate in a plastic sandwich bag? Now would be a good time to do so while you wait for the pot water to boil.
The idea behind this is that since a bowl has already been dirtied a second bowl would be adding to the problem. So why not melt the chocolate in a sandwich bag instead? When you are done you can just throw it away. Besides, if you by now after reading this paragraph opted to instead reach for another bowl consider this: you will have to transfer the contents of the bowl into the bag anyway to do the kind of decorating I am talking about. You choose.
I can see it now:
Cooking in a sandwich bag and just how much plastic is entered into my system will be a hotly debated issue in the comments below. So lets talk a little here.
"Chocolate melts at body temperature, about 95 to 100 degrees F." LINK
I am sure everyone has gotten chocolate on their finger before.
Sandwich bags are made of polyethylene.
LINK (page 7)
LDPE (Low Density Poly-Ethylene) melts at 248F.
LINK
Besides I am merely assisting the rapid melting of the chocolate by flashing it with steam, I am not, nor do I recommend that you boil or otherwise cook the bag and contents for prolonged periods of time.
(Stepping off my soapbox)
OK where was I? Ah yes, decorating. Needless to say I melted my chocolate in the freezer bag. For those of you who are looking at their sandwich bags right now don't worry, those work fine too. I melted the chocolate by placing it on top of the pie plate for a few seconds on each side and kneading the contents until a smooth consistency results.
For those of you who used another serial bowl, melting is just the same as the dip. Good luck transferring it to a sandwich bag. Tip: Get a second set of hands (hope you have kids!).
Pick one of the lower corners of the bag and snip off a tiny bit with scissors or a knife. Pick up the bag with the upper opposite corner and twist until you hold in your hands the very tool that cake decorators use. Squeeze a little onto the wax paper you laid out earlier, if the string is too tiny cut a larger hole. Be careful here because if you cut off too much at one time you will ruin the bag. You want to shoot for a string a little thicker than a rice grain.
When you are all set go to town on those strawberries. Just blindly going over all of the strawberries yields surprisingly good results. To step it up a notch you could pick three or four grouped strawberries and go in straight lines. Going one step further and going the opposite direction will make a checkerboard pattern. Heck, make little dots while you are at it. Be creative.
After you have decorated put them in the refrigerator for an hour or two to harden the chocolate.
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May 11, 2011. 3:52 PMPizzapie500
says:
To me, chocolate covered straweberries tastes good even if they aren't pretty/professional.
Reply
Apr 8, 2009. 10:32 AMlucdann
says:
There's an easier way to do this without having to do the ziploc bag technique, After the strawberries have been dipped, in another pan, melt your white chocolate, then take a wooden spoon and dip it in the melted white chocolate, you then hold the spoon directly above the strawberry and shake it in a back & forth motion, this gives you the thin zig zag lines across the strawberries so that it isn't "gobbed" on there.
Reply
1
Apr 8, 2009. 11:51 AMmfunk (author)
says:
The white chocolate looks chunky because in this particular batch it had bits of coconut in it--perhaps a poor choice for closeup photography in retrospect. I usually just apply the chocolate in rapid strokes to prevent the 'gobbed' look. Still, you have a great suggestion there! I have been wondering how to get finer lines of chocolate for some time. Thanks!
Reply
Feb 14, 2010. 12:32 AMRedesign Diva
says:
By far an awesome tut! I am trying this tomorrow! Thank you and she is a lucky woman. True gift from the heart...Good job!
Reply
Jun 3, 2009. 2:03 PMrainbowcake
says:
One way I use to get the white chocolate to look pretty is melt the white chocolate in a bowl and use a fork to drizzle it over the strawberries. You have to work fast or else the chocolate clumps up in places and doesn't look very nice. This way makes it look very professional!!! good luck!! :]
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