My Contribution to New Year's Eve dinner :) Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

I know this probably comes as a surprise to many of you, but I'm not going out to a major party for New Years eve lol......shocking right? Hardly....

Instead you'll find me curled up at a friends place for dinner in my lulu's and sweatshirt. Good food and games are on tap for the evening. On the menu is homemade chicken curry courtesy of our lovely hosts and my contribution is salad and dessert. I thought I would share what I'm bringing :)

Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Ingredients:
- good quality dark chocolate - approx 1oz/person (dark chocolate melts beautifully!)
- strawberries - approximately 5-8/oz of chocolate





Okay so this isn't a super long or complicated recipe - but there are definitely some tips and tricks to making sure that you don't screw it up (like I've done before!)

1) Wash and dry your strawberries. The chocolate won't stick if your berries have any moisture on them, so pat them thoroughly with paper towels until every last bit of moisture is gone.

2) If you have a double boiler* set it up...BUT if you don't, get a small pot, and put a couple of inches of water in it. Put a bowl on top that is small enough to slide down into the pot, but that won't touch the bottom or fall in. Bring the water to a boil and then turn down the stove to a simmer.
3) Put your chocolate in the bowl and using a spatula stir it and scrape it from the sides.

4) Dip your strawberries as liberally as you would like and place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
5) Once finished, put into the fridge for a minimum of an hour to set the chocolate.
6) Can be served with plain fruit, nuts, yogurt - pretty much anything your heart desires :)

Approximately 175 calories for 6 berries and 1 oz of dark chocolate :)


* what is the point to a double boiler? The idea is to heat up/cook a substance, without direct heat from the element which will protect it against burning. Some sauces (and even oatmeal) will burn if you don't stir it constantly. This is why it works so great for chocolate. If you've tried melting chocolate on the stove before, chances are, at least once it's turned from solid to liquid to crumbly mess in what seemed like seconds with very little time to use it! This happens because of the high heat of the stove. The double boiler protects against this very well