Black and White Strawberries

Mother's Day dinner was a success.  Clint grilled fresh herb-marinated chicken breasts and I made parmesan asparagus risotto.  And then I made this great blueberry ice cream that everyone loved.  It was a great ending to the night.  But wait...I pulled out a final surprise!  Chocolate-covered Strawberries!  It's not really much of a surprise because I try to make them for the moms in my life every Mother's Day. 

So everyone is lounging in our backyard.  Talking and resting.  And I bring out this beautiful display of strawberries.  My family oohs and aahs and rushes to take one off the plate.  I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.  Then I hear my dad say, "Wow...these are cold.  Oh! They're frozen!"  Yep.  My beautiful looking strawberries froze!  Needless to say, no one could eat them and my otherwise perfect meal ended with a flop.  We will talk about what I did wrong in a moment.  For now, here is the VERY easy-shouldn't be able to screw it up-recipe:

Black and White Strawberries

Ingredients:

1/4 c. + 2 T. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 t. raspberry liqueur

1 1/2 t. water

8 large strawberries, with stems

1/2 oz. white chocolate chopped, or 2 T. white chocolate chips

Line a large baking sheet with wax paper.  In a small microwaveable bowl, combine the chocolate chips, liqueur, and water.  Microwave on High, stirring twice, until melted and smooth, about 1 1/2 minutes.  Holding a strawberry by the hull, dip the berry halfway into the chocolate; set on the wax paper.  Repeat with the remaining berries and chocolate.

In another bowl, melt the while chocolate chips in microwave on High, stirring once, until melted and smooth, about 1 minute.  Dip a fork in the chocolate and drizzle over the strawberries.  Refrigerate until the chocolate hardens.  Serve chilled.

In my test kitchen:

I use raspberry extract...same thing as liqueur???  I don't know but it works out fine.  The first time I made these, I dipped the strawberries and put them in the fridge and when it came time to eat them, I pulled a strawberry off the wax paper and the chocolate hadn't set yet; it wouldn't really harden.  It still tasted good though.  I discovered that there are certain chocolate chips that just don't work well.  Nestle's chips are just more waxy.  I now use Ghiradelli chocolate chips and the chocolate hardens great.  So be sure to use a good quality chocolate. 

I have always put my strawberries in the fridge overnight and have never had them freeze before.  I realized that this time, due to the lack of room in my fridge, I had balanced the tray of strawberries on top of the package of cold/half frozen chicken breasts.  They must have been the cause for the freezing.  Oops.  I seem to have a lot of oopsies in my recipes lately.

The other problem I had was the white chocolate drizzle.  It would not harden this time.  I DID add a little water to it when microwaving because it wasn't smoothing out.  So that is probably the reason.  I think it might be best to melt this on the stove???

~Happy Cooking!