Welp, thank you for those of you who responded yesterday to my query for healthy desserts - it got my brain thinking!
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Healthy desserts are kind of....dumb...you know? I get that yogurt and fruit is a great option but, frankly, I'd rather not have any dessert at all. When I have dessert I usually kind of go for it, and fruit is GREAT and I love it, but I wouldn't call it a replacement for chocolate or any of the other nonsense we find this time of year on our tables.
That being said, sometimes holiday meals are such a carbfest and you still want something sweet, and I actually think that this is the perfect compromise: we have our chocolate with fruit, which is basically a vegetable, and kale is a vegetable, so this is basically a health food.
I know, I know.
The even better thing about these is that they take MINUTES to make and involve 3 ingredients, and one of the ingredients is sprinkles, which you can obviously skip.
I obviously did NOT skip the sprinkles because why on earth would you?
In addition to the sprinkles you need chocolate chips and strawberries. Duh. And side note, you could do this with any fruit that you want to be dipped in chocolate. Apple slices! Pears! Grapes! Bananas! You can probably name fruits on your own, though, so let's move on.
All we do is melt the chocolate, dip the berries, sprinkle on sprinkles, and let 'em dry. You can melt the chocolate in a double boiler, but I use the microwave. Put the chocolate in a microwave safe dish. As a side note, this ended up being way too wide for the amount of chocolate I was using - in the future I'll use a bowl or something without a flat edge so that it'll be easier to dip the berries. Live and learn!
For the chocolate, microwave it for JUST 30 seconds at a time, don't cheat, then stir.
Then repeat a few times until the chocolate is all melted. If you go longer than 30 seconds per interval you run the risk of burning the edges, which is stinky and gross and also will wreck your dish-washing life. 30 seconds. Be patient. This particular amount of chocolate only took 3 rounds of microwaving, so two minutes total including stirring - it's really not that bad.
When the chocolate is melted, we just need our berries, sprinkles, and a place to let everything dry set up. I use
Then we need to work quickly to dip the strawberries - the chocolate dries fast! If you are doing a large quantity of these, you might want to do two batches of chocolate or have a friend helping you with sprinkles - by the time I was done dipping these berries the chocolate was almost dry on the first ones I'd done, and it'd only been about 5 minutes.
We just do a little dip, a little twirl, then place the berry on whatever surface you've prepared.
Repeat until they're all done, working quickly, adding sprinkles after every 4 berries or so to avoid the chocolate drying too quickly on you.
Then, stick the berries in the fridge until the chocolate has hardened and you're ready to serve.
How great! I love how easy these are, and I think they'd make a great addition to a cookie tray where, say, you wanted to have a few different options but didn't want to bake all the live-long day, ya know? Story of my life. Want lots of food, don't want to spend all day on it.
These are perfect for this time of year. Make them soon!
Recipe
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Ingredients
- 1 pound strawberries with stems
- 6 ounces chocolate chips or chopped baker's chocolate
- sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, or in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each 30 seconds until the chocolate is melted.
- One at a time, dip the berries halfway into the chocolate, letting the excess drip off. Sprinkle with sprinkles if you're using them.
- Let the berries chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes; serve when the chocolate has hardened.
Notes
- Serving Size: 3 chocolate covered strawberries
- Nutrition Information (per serving): Calories 126; Total Fat 12 g, Saturated Fat 7.4 g; Total Carbohydrates 9.6 g; Sugar 2.1 g; Fiber 4.6 g; Protein 3.1 g; Sodium 5.8 mg
Kaitlin
"You can probably name fruit on your own, though." You crack me up!