White Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Just before Easter, I stumbled across a Facebook page titled: "The Lunch Box Lady."  Although a photograph of an amazing polka-dot cake drew me to the page, the photo that truly grabbed my attention displayed chocolate covered strawberries decorated like Easter eggs.  I would like to thank "The Lunch Box Lady" on Facebook for inspiring this fun idea! (If you use Facebook, I encourage you to look up the page.  The berries pictured on her page are much prettier than mine.  There are also a lot more great ideas!)

White Chocolate Covered Strawberries inspired by "The Lunch Box Lady" on Facebook

This year, at our annual Easter get-together, my family presented our extended family with small Easter-themed dishes full of these yummy treats.

Please feel free to cut the recipe in half.  We wanted plenty to share with our family!

Ingredients:
2 2-lb packages of fresh strawberries with stems
2 bags of Ghirardelli white chocolate chips*

Other Items Required:
Microwave-safe bowl
Wilton gel food coloring*
Wax Paper
Large cookie sheet
Toothpicks
Quart-sized zip-top freezer bags

*Note: Colored candy melts may be substituted for the white chocolate and gel food coloring.  Using liquid food coloring could cause problems with the consistency of the chocolate.

1. Wash the strawberries and set them out on paper towels to thoroughly dry.  (My boys gently dabbed any remaining moisture off with paper towels, prior to dipping.)

2.  Line a cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment paper

3. Place three-fourths a bag of chips into a large microwave safe bowl and microwave them at 50% power for 30 seconds.  Stir the chips and continued to cook at 30 second intervals at 50% power until the chocolate stirs into a smooth mixture.  (Add more chips and reheat if necessary.)  Do not overheat the chocolate.

4. Dip the dry strawberries into the chocolate and set them onto the lined cookie sheet.

5.  Melt a smaller batch of white chocolate chips and add gel food coloring.  Once mixed, drizzle the colored mixture onto the strawberries.  (I scraped the colored chocolate into a small zip-top baggie, cut a tiny section from one corner of the bag, and squeezed the chocolate onto the berries.  For the dots, we dipped toothpicks into the colored chocolate and dabbed them onto the strawberries.)

6. Repeat step 5 with other colors of your choice.

Storage:
Our berries did not last long!  However, I found this article at eHow.com with great tips for storing chocolate covered strawberries. 

If you make this tasty treat, I would love to hear how yours turn out!