Chocolate Covered Strawberries!

Good Evening Everyone! I felt a little romantic at heart today, due to the light snow flurries falling off and on, all throughout the day, so I thought what could be more romantic than Chocolate covered Strawberries "flurried" with some shredded coconut? Here is how to create and design your own:

Ingredients:

1 Pound (about 20) of Large Ripe Strawberries (Strawberry is peak season around April through June but most large supermarkets carry them year round)

6 Ounces of bittersweet 60% or higher, quality dark chocolate.

1/2 cup of shredded Coconut 

Directions: 

Wash and dry the strawberries. Cut off the leaves and stems. Line a sheet pan with parchment or wax paper. Set aside. Put the chocolate into a heatproof medium sized bowl. Fill a medium saucepan with a couple inches of water and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off the heat; set the bowl of chocolate over the water to melt. Stir until smooth. (Or you can heat the chocolate in the microwave at half power for 1 minute, stir, then heat for another minute or until melted completely.)

Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, remove from heat. Drop one strawberry at a time into the melted chocolate and roll bowl gently to coat strawberry completely. Remove delicately with a fork, while allowing excess chocolate to drip off. Place each strawberry on wax or parchment paper. Repeat until all strawberries are covered in chocolate. Then take a spoon and sprinkle some coconut over each strawberry while chocolate is still wet and soft, so the coconut will stick. You can also add some chocolate drizzle over the coconut, just for looks, by dipping a fork in the left over chocolate and let the drizzle drip off the fork in side to side motions across the coconut. (White chocolate is also a nice drizzle touch, if you have some.) 

Set the strawberries aside until the chocolate sets, about 30 minutes. Then enjoy, or wrap up in a gift box as a gift for the one you adore! XOXO