Chocovine-infused Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Chocolate covered strawberries are one of the best manmade creations, equal only to the wonder that is the electric Snuggie. In terns of making a dessert, it is also absolutely perfect for the lazy person who wants to get a lot of praise for very little work.  I added booze to mine, because everything is better with booze, and I had some Chocovine to use up.  I'm sure you could substitute Port or champagne or Riesling and it would still taste brilliant.

Step 1: Wash your strawberries and dry them.  Put them in a bowl and cover them with Chocovine.  I didn't have enough to cover them, so every half hour or so I would stir them and mix it up.  Stick em in the fridge and let them marinate for at least an hour, more if possible.

For those of you who don't know what Chocovine looks like.  Unfortunately, I am a terrible photographer, so you probably still don't know what it looks like.

Step 2: After the strawberries have soaked up enough alcohol for your liking, melt your chocolate.  I mixed semi-sweet chips with Ghiradelli dark chocolate and a little bit of Coconut Oil.  I used refined because it is better for heating and doesn't have as much of a coconutty taste as unrefined, but you could use either.  This helps it to harden and gives it a richness.

Pick some good chocolate, this is my personal favorite.

The final mixture.  Use a ratio of about a tablespoon of Coconut Oil to 1 cup of chocolate.

I used a mug to heat it because a bowl would make it harder to dip the berries in.  You could use a double boiler, but I just nuked it for 2 min on 50% and it was perfect.  Just make sure to stir it every 30 seconds, and once the chips are about 75% melted, stop cooking it and just stir until they are all melted.  At this point, you might want to stick it in a bowl of hot water so that your chocolate doesn't start to harden in the mug like mine did.

Step 3: Dippin.  If you want to add other layers, like sprinkles or white chocolate, get that prepared.  I didn't dry off the berries from the Chocovine mixture before dipping, which makes the chocolate layer a bit thinner and doesn't adhere as well but also adds some of the Chocovine Flavor in the dip.  You could go either way.  I double dipped mine because I love me some chocolate, and then I stuck em on wax paper.

First coat

I decided to dip just the tips in Coconut Sugar, just for a second, just to see how it feels.  

I love the earthy color of Coconut Sugar, and it has a really great nutty sweet taste.  I dipped the side that was going down on the wax paper in the sugar to help it not stick.

Towards the end the chocolate mixture had started to harden.  Here they are, in all their inconsistent glory.

Have leftover chocolate?  You can either mash it in your face like a lady, or make a cheesy looking heart as a garnish.

Cheesy looking heart with Coconut Sugar.  Tip, don't put this on a plate, put this on the wax paper.  If you put it on a plate (see above) you will spend 10 minutes angrily stabbing it for breaking apart when you tried to pry it off.

Stick it all in the fridge and it should harden within a half hour, probably sooner.

I decided to pit the sugared tips against the non-sugared tips in my  own version of West Side Story.  A sad, cat lady version.

 Bon appetit!  Let me know how it works out!

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