Homemade Chocolate + Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

“Hey, Mom and Dad, we wanted to do something nice for you, so we took the organic strawberries you picked up at CostCo and the unsweetened cacao you had in your pantry and the butter and maple syrup from your fridge and, look! We made you chocolate-covered strawberries! Sorry they’re not that sweet. I like chocolate dark.”

Give me three days at my parents’ house and there I am, 10 years old again, wandering through Walgreen’s with the $5 my mom has given me, looking for something to buy for her for Mother’s Day. (I picked some sort of bath salts. She probably still has them.) My parents are pretty open-handed with their kids, always outgiving us in every physical way, from putting me through college to paying for my braces to covering my and Tim’s entire wedding costs, right down to the honeymoon that we still talk about once a week. When we come home to visit them, even as 30-something adults, their kitchen is like a grocery store, filled with food we can play with (and we have). This July 4th weekend I’ve been thankful for how both my parents and my country have filled my life with a lot of freedom to learn and to grow and to see things that I might not have been able to see without their help. I’m also thankful they are the ones God has given me, specifically, sovereignly, because of nothing I have asked for or done on my own.

These are the strawberries we gave them yesterday, with the ingredients they gave us, and, if we’re being fully transparent, we ate more of them than they did.

By: FoodLovesWriting.com

Serving Size: a tray of strawberries

Chocolate-covered strawberries feel so impressive and decadent but they are SO quick to make. We're talking 15 minutes. You can always just melt your favorite chocolate bar, but we enjoyed making our own in this version. The same chocolate will work well as a topping on ice cream, FYI, and while you may use coconut oil instead of butter, we are partial to the rich flavor butter imparts.

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces cacao (i.e., unsweetened chocolate, like Baker's)
• 1/2 stick butter
• Organic maple syrup, to taste
• A dash of sea salt
• Up to 1 pint organic strawberries, washed and dried

Directions:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt together the chocolate and butter until smooth. Add maple syrup to taste and remove from heat when you like the sweetness level. Add a dash of sea salt.

Arrange strawberries on a parchment-lined dish or baking sheet. Holding them by their greens, dip into chocolate, rolling to cover around the sides. Lift, let chocolate drip off, and place on parchment. Repeat until you're out of chocolate or out of strawberries, whichever comes first (the size of your strawberries will affect how many you can make).

Chill in refrigerator until set, about an hour or so. Enjoy!

The post Homemade Chocolate Chocolate-Covered Strawberries appeared first on Food Loves Writing / Real Food Recipes.