A New Twist On An Old Classic

Chocolate dipped fruit is by far the dessert I make most often for dinner guests. For one thing, it's easy. For another, it's relatively light. I love to make rich, heavy meals for guests and they are often time consuming - making dipped fruit an ideal finishing touch. Furthermore, I find that my guests are always delighted to be presented with a beautiful plate of strawberries dipped in dark chocolate or cherries dipped in white chocolate. As Ina says "How bad can that be?"

I was thrilled to see a new take on this old trick while I was watching the Food Network the other day. Claire Robinson has a new show called Five Ingredient Fix that airs Saturdays at 12:30 pm and Sundays at 8:30 am. I've watched the show a few times and I think her concept is good - delicious food that doesn't involve more than five ingredients. Often this doesn't work for me. I love to add lots of flavor to my food with herbs and spices, but her ideas are great for simplifying your cooking processes. Also, I think the show is wonderful for beginner cooks because the recipes aren't intimidating. Last week Claire shared a recipe for Chili-Chocolate Covered Strawberries and I had to make them right away. She simply melted down chocolate in a double boiler and then added a bit of chili powder at the end, dip the strawberries, let the chocolate harden and Voila! Dessert is done. I had ground cayenne on hand, so that is what I used but you could use any type of chili powder.

Here are some tips on making perfect Chocolate Dipped Strawberries:

• Rinse your berries and then let them dry completely. If water gets into the chocolate it makes it harden quickly and become lumpy and ugly. I usually rinse mine and lay them out on a kitchen towel for a good hour before dipping them.



• You don't need to use long stemmed berries, they are hard to find. But, the bigger the better in terms of appearance and balancing the strawberry flavor with the chocolate.



• If you don't have a double boiler you can simply fit a glass or metal bowl over a sauce pan. Fill the pan with a few inches of water, you don't want it to touch the bottom of the bowl, and bring the water to a boil. Put your chips or chopped up chocolate in the bowl and continue to whisk until smooth. Once it's smooth, remove from the heat. You can reheat if necessary.



• Once berries are dipped put them on a piece of wax paper on top of a large cookie sheet. Put the whole cookie sheet in the fridge for at least an hour so the chocolate can set. Remove from wax paper and arrange on a pretty plate or platter.



• Bring dipped berries to room temp before serving. The chocolate will taste better. I usually take them out of the fridge during the main course.

Enjoy!