A classic Valentine’s Day dessert that’s a healthy alternative to other sweets!
I decided to make some chocolate covered strawberries because first, who doesn’t love them?! And second, it’s such a healthy alternative to all the chocolate and desserts people will be eating this Valentine’s Day.
If you know me, you know I have a HUGE sweet tooth. Like if it was possible to survive only on chocolate for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t think twice about replacing everything in my kitchen with chocolate. Okay, that’s a little bit over the top, but I do realllly love chocolate. While living in Florence, there was a week-long chocolate festival only a few blocks from my apartment and, needless to say, I probably spent over 50 euro on chocolate that week, plus I had samples from every single booth.
Obviously, though, it makes it hard to eat healthy having such a sweet tooth, but I have found a love for dark chocolate. There’s a lot of confusion over cocoa verses “cacao,” heck even I get confused sometimes. Cacao is the rawest form of chocolate—right after it comes out of the pod off the tree—whereas cocoa is what you get after roasting and processing those beans.
Because so much processing and additives go into making cocoa, cacao is the healthier choice and the most common forms you’ll find at the store include nibs and powder. These products do not taste quite as sweet as a bag of chocolate chips, but they still add some sweetness to any dessert.
Some benefits of cacao include high levels of antioxidants, fatty acids, fiber, iron, copper, zinc, magnesium and calcium. It can help lower blood pressure, promote cardiovascular function and improve digestion. Remember, though, this is BEFORE it is processed into cocoa.
When buying dark chocolate, the greater percentage of cacao, the darker and better for you it is. When buying chocolate to make these chocolate covered strawberries, I chose the highest cacao percentage I could find at the store, which was 86%. You can find 100% cacao dark chocolate at different stores or online, but it gets bitterer the higher the percentage, so it depends on your preference of dark chocolate.
Chocolate covered strawberries always seemed so fancy and hard to make to me, but really they’re so simple! All you have to do is melt some chocolate, cover the strawberries, and stick them in the fridge until they harden. There are all kinds of yummy toppings you can add too, like nuts, sprinkles, coconut, nut butters, or more chocolate!
Instead of buying some processed Valentine’s Day candy at the store with tons of sugar and additives, make your valentine (or yourself) some of these healthy and easy dark chocolate covered strawberries!
Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberries
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A classic Valentine's Day dessert that's a healthy alternative to other sweets!
You'll Need...
- 15 to 20 strawberries
- 5 ounces dark chocolate, bar or chips
- ½ tablespoon coconut oil
- Toppings of choice
Directions
- Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Add chocolate and coconut oil to a microwave safe bowl, breaking apart chocolate if using a bar.
- Microwave for 1 minute, then stir.
- Continue to microwave for 20 second increments, stirring after each, until chocolate is completely melted.
- Hold each strawberry by the stem and dip into the bowl, covering it in chocolate.
- Let any excess chocolate drip off, then place each strawberry on the cookie sheet and repeat process until all are covered.
- Sprinkle toppings on top of the chocolate covered strawberry (if adding any).*
- Refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes until chocolate has hardened. Store in a cool place so chocolate doesn’t melt.
Additional Notes
*You may want to add toppings between dipping strawberries, depending on how quickly you are moving, because the chocolate can harden quickly and make it difficult for toppings to stick. You could also try to roll each strawberry in the toppings, but I find this gets pretty messy.
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