Vegan Citrus Cheesecakes

Vegan Citrus Cheesecakes
1 1/4 cup raw cashews
1 lemon
1 lime
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup agave

Place the cashews in a small saucepan. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer gently until almost all water has evaporated. Drain, then transfer to a food processor or ideally a Vitamix blender. 
Slice the hard ends off the lemon and lime, then cut into pieces. Add to the cashews.
Process mixture until very smooth, then add vanilla and agave (more or less, to taste. Chill until firm, or serve immediately as a cheesecake dip, but it will be slightly warm and the texture and 'cheesecakeyness' will be much better once cold.

I put my batter into six muffin cups, lined with melted chocolate. You will be amazed at how much the texture is like cheesecake. The taste is similar too, maybe not as 'cheesy' but close. This is a good basic vegan cheesecake recipe, and can be flavored in a variety of ways - chocolate, cinnamon, berries, etc. 

Valentine Amuse Bouche

Tonight for service in the restaurant (we are not open Sundays) we went kind of Valentine's themed for our menus. I was on the garde-manger station, and part of my responsibilities was to create the amuse-bouche for the night. I definitely wanted to go with something heart-shaped, something red or pink, and something decadent. Here is what I devised:
- Heart Shaped Cranberry Cracker
- Foie Gras Ganache
- Honeyed Bakeapple
- Candied Pistachio

Heart Biscuits

These biscuits are based from my go-to biscuit recipe I devised myself. I haven’t found a tastier, easier biscuit to make and this recipe never fails and can be manipulated in different ways. Here is the base formula

Basic Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup cold butter or hard margarine, cut into cubes

1 cup milk

Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Stir in the milk to form a soft dough and knead briefly until it just comes together. Roll or pat out to desired thickness and cut as desired. Bake until golden.

Variations

Flour: Try whole wheat, a mix, ground oats, or adding in other whole grains.

Sweet: Cut back on the salt and add up to two tablespoons of granulated sugar to use dough for sweeter applications.

Fat: Both butter and margarine work well. Use a compound butter for extra flavor, or cream cheese for extra richness.

Milk: I have had success with evaporated, powdered, and fresh milk of varying milk fat percentages.

Baking: I have been able to bake these at temperatures ranging from 350◦F to 425◦F – all work but the lower the temperature, the longer they take. Higher temperatures also make the biscuits slightly crispier. I always bake them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Preparation: I have prepared the dough ahead of time and refrigerated before rolling and cutting. I have also prepared biscuits and refrigerated those before baking. I have also mixed up the dry ingredients and had the butter cubed and ready to go and the milk poured in advance.

Applications: Use for basic biscuits, crescent rolls, pizza roll-ups, crusts for meats, croissants, shortcakes for desserts, turnovers, toppings for casseroles and soups, and more. The dough holds filling really well.

Valentine Cookies, Desserts, and Suppers

One more Valentine's-themed post for this year. Here are some nicely decorated heart shaped sugar cookies for valentines day. They are both plain sugar cookie with pink sprinkles. One of them has a vanilla drizzle and the other has crushed pistachios. 

Every Valentine's Day I like to make one main, fancy, and very chocolaty dessert. I also like to make some side treats for snacks, such as cookies or truffles. And if I can, I like to make a savory item or two with a Valentine's theme - such as heart shaped biscuits or pizzas. Here are some titles of Valentine's foods I have made from previous years. The posts can be searched in my search bar.

DESSERTS: 
Brownie Dessert
Strawberry Truffle Tart
Valentine's Day Parfaits
Chocolate Fruit Nutella Cups
Berried Treasure Bar Cookies
Heart-Shaped Cake
Lovely Cheesecake

TREATS:
Heart Truffles
Valentine Truffles
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Chocolate Cake Cookies
Box of Chocolates
Kiss Cookies

SAVORY:
Tomato Heart Appetizers
Bruschetta
Valentine Biscuits
Heart Pizzas

Valentine Chocolate Nutella Fruit Cups

What goes better with Valentine's Day than chocolate? And of course some fresh red berries are nice too. This is the Valentine's Day dessert I made this year for my valentine. All of my valentine desserts, as least from the past three years, seem to rely heavily on chocolate, include fresh berries, and feature hearts. 

This year's dessert is quite simple - a recipe isn't even required - yet it looks pretty and elegant and seems special. First I made chocolate cups - this is done by melting a good-quality chocolate and using a pastry brush to brush it on the inside of paper muffin cups, then chilling until firm. You may need to apply several coats for structure, I did three coats and used dark chocolate. Then I piped the cups full of nutella, or chocolate hazelnut spread, which I seem to like to use quite a bit lately. I guess I didn't get a good enough dose of nutella on World Nutella Day last week. It's just a great all-purpose chocolaty spread, but alternately chocolate mousse or chocolate pudding could be used instead. Next I placed fresh raspberries and blackberries on top (as strawberries are so expensive and tasteless at this time). I gently heated some raspberry jam and brushed it over the fruit to perserve them and add sweetness and shine. Then I sprinkled the cups with some finely chopped nuts for a little crunch, and added some white chocolate heart decor.

The idea for this dessert is simple and can be used to make a wide variety of different dessert possibilities - use any type of chocolate for the cups; any type of mousse, pudding, custard, yogurt, or preserves for the filling; and any type of fruits and nuts for the topping. You may also garnish with whipped cream, icing sugar, or a caramel drizzle.

Berried Treasure Bar Cookies

This is the Valentine's dessert my mother made. It essentially consists of a shortbread base, a strawberry custard-like filling, a strawberry jam glaze, and a chocolate ganache frosting. The recipe came from one of our mystery cookbook novels, which has never failed us with a recipe yet and contains many decadent, often chocolaty delightful desserts. This dessert has several steps, though none of them are very difficult, so the dessert needs to be made in advance to allow for setting time as well. The crust is baked, then the filling is baked. The bars are then glazed with the strawberry jam and chilled, then the chocolate is placed on and chilled again. Actually, the original recipe called for raspberry jam, but we prefer a seedless strawberry jam. I am sure any other jam would work too, but a red jam is nice for Valentine's Day. The bars would also be nice garnished with some fresh strawberries or raspberries. Because these squares are fairly rich, one 9x13 inch pan can go a long way, but it may also be cut into large hunks for a satisfying dessert for your Valentine. 

These bars are pretty tasty. They have a great composition and stay together well. The shortbread crust makes a firm base that holds the entire square up. The filling does not have an overly strong strawberry flavor, so I would have liked to taste some more strawberry. My favorite part is the chocolate topping, which is something like a sweet ganache, and it firms up on top of the squares. Actually, I preferred eating this when it was hot from the pot, but it really does make the squares delicious, as they aren't overly sweet on their own. The book also featured another recipe similar to this one, the basic change being that the base is a brownie base instead of a shortbread base. I bet I would enjoy these even more, since I am definitely a chocoholic! 

Valentine's Day Parfaits

Well, I'm not sure these exactly fit the definition of a parfait, but the name did rhyme off the tongue nicely, and it also happens to be the French word for perfect, which I thought fit nicely. Anyways, I strongly believe there is not better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with chocolate (and a loved one of course) so I always make Valentine's desserts that are heavy on the chocolate. I created this dessert collection from an idea I saw in several different places - basically a type of chocolate parfait, that contains chocolate as well as other flavors such as fruit, nuts, coffee, vanilla, and more in an edible dish that is essentially a bowl or cup made out of chocolate. Each parfait has a unique, special title or flavor profile, and the general structure of the parfait consists of a base ingredients, add-ons, a filling of some sort, and garnish. The base ingredients could include pieces of cake, cookie, or nuts; the add-ons could be fruit, nuts, or chocolate pieces; the filling could be a mousse, yogurt, ganache, or whipped cream; garnishes could be chocolate shapes, caramel shapes, mint leaves, or more; and flavor options include vanilla, mocha, fruit, and chocolate. Here are the creations I came up with:

Chocolate Champion: chocolate brownie pieces, chocolate ganache, chocolate flakes, chocolate filigree.




Fruit Fiesta: oranges, strawberries, blueberries, cherries yogurt, honey. 

Nice 'n Nutty: whole almonds, ground walnuts, pecan pieces, shredded coconut, peanut butter chocolate ganache, hazelnuts.

Strawberry Shortcake: shortbread cookie pieces, strawberries, yogurt, cinnamon, honey.

These are all served in edible white and dark chocolate lace cups, which I featured yesterday! Happy Valentine's Day everyone, and enjoy some chocolate! < 3 

Valentine Cake Ideas

Over a month ago, I was asked to make another cake for a charity auction to be held the Friday before Valentine's Day. I was all set and excited to do this. I promptly conducted many internet searches to look for ideas for valentine's themed cakes. I have a heart-shaped cake pan, so I was all set. And you would not believe how many beautiful Valentine's Day cakes you can find out there! All that pink and red; and hearts and flowers and lace; and sprinkles and chocolate. I sifted through them, and chose a few of the ones I thought were the best, but still simple enough for me to do using the tools that I had on hand. Then i took different aspects from each of them and put them together to plan my own heart-shaped, Valentine themed cake. I even got a nice platter for it and everything. Perfect. If only the weather had cooperated. The auction was not yet held, but postponed for two weeks later. Not even just the day after Valentine's Day, but an entire week later. Luckily, I had not started actually making the cake yet, and it was now obvious that my Valentine'themed cake would no longer be fitting. Which meant I had to come up with an entire new cake design. It also meant all my Valentine cake planning would go to waste. Or would it?

When I am making cakes, I find it much easier to facilitate if I have a solid theme in mind and an idea of where I am going. Furthermore, it definitely helps to have the entire cake drawn out and planned, and all of the ingredients and equipment gathered. I had all of that ready. But now I was faced with a problem  The auction would no longer be Valentine themed, and not themed at all. I don't do well without a theme. It is much too open-ended. I end up having way too many options, and attempt to do something probably more complicated than I can handle. And there is no room for error when the cake is for a charity auction; it has to be good. 

What is my final decision? Well, I spent a lot of time on my valentine's cake idea, and I don't want it to go to waste. I also determined that I need a theme, though there are so many simple "everyday" cake ideas out there, I just know I need some direction. And there is no other upcoming theme, it isn't close enough to spring yet, people are too sick of winter, and there are no other upcoming holidays. I am going to stick with the heart-shaped cake and use the majority of the design for that, just not make it Valentine's themed (I won't write "Happy Valentine's Day" on it, like planned). It is only about a week after Valentine's day, so people will still be in the mood for hearts, right? Hopefully it will sell well and generate a lot of money for the charity. 

PHOTO CREDIT:"8742492-valentine-heart-shaped-rose-petals" http://www.123rf.com/photo_8742492_valentine-heart-shaped-rose-petals.html. 123RF, n.d. Monday, February 18, 2013.

Tuxedo Strawberries

Tuxedo Strawberries are a nice garnish for a variety of chocolate desserts, and a step up from chocolate covered strawberries. If you have experience with dessert making, presentation, and chocolate  they are not particularly difficult to make, just a little tedious and time-consuming. They require great attention to detail, and just making a few of them will take a significant amount of time. But if you can get them right they are well worth it. It is extremely difficult to get them absolutely perfect looking, even with the use of toothpicks, cotton swabs, and a magnifying glass.

I attempted these for the first time last week. I have done chocolate Covered Strawberries before (see February 13th, 2012), and they turned out quite nice looking. Not completely professional looking, but I have an extra year's experience on me now. There was a slight problem with the chocolate sort of breaking off of them in pieces instead of being smooth and sticking to them, but they still looked nice. So I decided to try tuxedo strawberries. The technique for these is to dip strawberries in melted white chocolate, let set, then dip the sides in melted dark chocolate  and add a bow-tie and some buttons. Simple right? The first problem was, I did not have any white chocolate on hand, as I am not much of a white chocolate fan. I decided to use a quick icing, just icing sugar and water. This was working okay, not as smooth to dip in as chocolate, but not bad. Instead of dipping the strawberries in dark chocolate next, I decided to pipe the chocolate on, figuring it would be easier, which it was. Satisfied, I photographed them and put them in the fridge. Done.

i did not discover the problem until the next day. I had made these strawberries the day before, knowing I would not have time the day of. But in the fridge overnight, the juicy strawberries absorbed the icing, and the only thing left was the chocolate  Well, the tuxedo effect was gone, but I could still have chocolate encased strawberries, right? Well no, that chocolate began to flake off like last year. Hmm, the strawberries themselves were still in tact, and when I tasted one, the otherwise somewhat tasteless (it is off-season) strawberries were extra sweet from the icing. So I had to forgot about garnishing the strawberries and just use a plain strawberry to garnish my dessert on Thursday. A tuxedo strawberry would have looked nice, but I made do. However, I take all of these failed attempts I endure and use them as learning experiences; if you don't make mistakes, you will never learn. I learned that in this case, icing is not a good substitute for white chocolate, at least not in advance preparation. I also learned strawberries absorb icing when stored in the fridge overnight. I'll remember that for next time. I also learned (though I already knew this) that it is best to photograph your food immediately once it is ready, before anything happens to it, so you have photo evidence of your creation!

Red Head Pasta

This easy pasta recipe is the meal I enjoyed on Valentine's Day. It is not specifically catered to Valentine's Day, it could be enjoyed any time of the year. This sauce recipe is very easy to do and quick, and just needs to be tossed with some cooked pasta to make a nice meal, complete with a salad or vegetables and some bread or biscuits. The entire process only takes about twenty minutes to a half hour, but the sauce can simmer for longer if need be. It is also not a high-labor recipe, and does not require undivided attention. This recipe makes two heaping servings, or three to four as a side dish, but the recipe can easily be doubled. The sauce keeps well in the fridge and can be used on other things as well. It is a slightly chunkier sauce, but would be good on pizza. The herbs, spices, seasonings, and vegetables can be adjusted as you like.

Red Head Pasta

boiling water

salt

125 grams (2 1/2 cups) short dry pasta, I used rotini

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

1 Tablespoon olive oil

½ cup chopped onion

½ cup sliced fresh mushrooms

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

7 ounces (200mL) canned tomatoes

3 ounces (128 mL) tomato paste

3 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

½ cup chopped plum tomatoes

fresh basil, chopped

ground black pepper

In a large saucepan over high heat, bring water to a boil. Once boiling, add salt and pasta. Cook, stirring often until pasta is tender. Drain. Return to pot. Add butter and stir.

Meanwhile, in a medium frying pan over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the onion, mushrooms, and garlic. Saute for about five minutes, until soft. Add remaining ingredients, simmer slowly for at least fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add sauce to pasta, and stir to coat. Serve with extra cheese, pepper, or herbs.

Chocolate Truffle Hearts

Here are the heart-shaped truffles I put alongside my Valentine's Day dessert. This is a yummy truffle recipe I have used before upon occasion, and it is always a hit. The recipe is super quick and simple, and the result is sweet, chocolaty, velvety-smooth truffles. There are no complicated steps to this truffle recipe, and they do not require dipping in chocolate and rolling in another ingredient like some truffles, they are perfectly fine served plain. Another thing I really like about these truffles is that they can be formed in different ways. They can be rolled into balls, formed into a log and sliced, shaped into shapes, as above, pressed into a pan or mold, or simple scooped up with a spoon and eaten if you are a bit impatient. They are not sticky, messy or gooey, but easy to roll and shape, unless they get a little too warm, then they can just be popped in the fridge for a few minutes. And they turn out well every time, even if the ingredient measures are not completely precise. These are more of a light chocolate, soft truffle, but they just melt in your mouth. They are one of my mother's favorites. Here I have them pictured with some chocolate filigree hearts around the plate. These are certainly one way to get your chocolate fix on Valentine's Day!

Valentine Biscuits

Valentine Biscuits

1 cup all-purpose (plain) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup hard margarine, cut into cubes

½ cup milk

Preheat oven to 425◦F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the margarine until crumbly. Add milk, stir with a fork. Knead on a lightly floured surface for about thirty seconds.

Roll dough out thinly, about ¼ inch thick. This can vary, but adjust baking time accordingly. Cut out using heart cookie cutter. Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden.

This made a nice side dish to a delicious Valentine's Day dinner last night. I cannot take much credit for making these, I only helped a tad and my amazing Valentine did the rest. However I did provide the recipe. This is one of my favorite biscuit recipes simply because it is so quick and easy and so versatile. Also, these biscuits always turn out nice and light and fluffy and buttery, this really is a never-fail recipe. Here they are cut into a variety of shapes for Valentine's day, hearts and arrows mostly in a variety of sizes. Some of the shapes may be a bit difficult to make out in the photo. It is probably pretty obvious from my lack of props and food styling that I was impatient in enjoying the biscuits hot from the oven. These don't even need any butter!

Valentine's Strawberry Truffle Tart

Well, here is my great Valentine's Day dessert this year! I seem to have a theme going for Valentine desserts: lots of chocolate, strawberries, and heart-shaped. Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? Here I have a chocolate truffle tart with fresh sliced strawberries, chocolate heart truffles, whole strawberries, and chocolate filigree hearts. Now this may sound tedious and like a lot of work, but it really isn't. This recipe is composed of several simple and quick aspects, but put them together and you get a really special, impressive-looking, chocolaty Valentine dessert. I began with a chocolate crumb crust for the tart, in an 8x8 inch pan. I lined this with sliced strawberries. Then I put the chocolate truffle filling over top and refrigerated it until firm. I then cut the tart out into heart shapes. I choose a few whole strawberries for garnish. I also whipped up a quick batch of my chocolate truffles, and shaped them into hearts to go alongside the tart. With some extra melted chocolate, I made some chocolate filigree hearts to add a little to the design and heart theme. Simple. Put them all together and voila! you've got a stunning sweet dessert.
I can feature some of the other aspects of my dessert later this week, or maybe even next week, or maybe sometime later if I find this Valentine's theme is dragging on a bit too long, as these aren't necessarily Valentine-oriented treats.

Tomato Heart Appetizers

This is a very cute Valentine's Day appetizer idea that I recently came across online, and I am sure glad I did. Vegetables are difficult to associate with Valentine's Day, so when I saw this idea I was very appreciative. In addition, this idea is really simple, and you can put it with anything. Basically, take some plum tomatoes and cut a diagonal sliver off each of the long ends. Once you have them all cut, put the small pieces aside for another use. Then take all of the tomatoes you have and make pairs based on size, shape, and tone. Place the two long sides together to form a heart shape. Once you have your matches, stick a toothpick through the two pieces to hold them together. This will form heart shaped tomato pieces with a toothpick "arrow" going through them. So easy, so quick, and so cute! These actually aren't very tedious at all, they don't take long but look very nice and are well worth the effort for your sweetheart. They can be served alone as as, on top of a salad, along with a biscuit, with cheese, or whatever you like! Here I have them pictured on a plate with some fresh basil leaves for presentation. They will make a nice appetizer for Valentine's Dinner tomorrow. Hopefully the recipient will not read my blog again until tomorrow as well, so they can be a sweet surprise.

Valentine Cookie Messages

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and I have started making some Valentine recipes. This post is just the start of what will be, no doubt, at least a few days of valentine foods. I really like Valentine's Day, and it is easy to make Valentine's recipes, especially desserts, since chocolate and Valentine's Day go hand-in-hand, and pretty much any chocolate creation can be formed into a heart shape somehow. Today I made heart shaped chocolate cookies. The cookie recipe is actually the recipe I use for chocolate whoopie pies (see June 22nd, 2012), so the cookies are soft and cake-like. I simply mixed up the dough, then dropped it by ice cream scoops into the center of a heart shaped cookies cutter, and used a spoon to spread it out. This goes much better if the cookie cutter is lightly greased between every few cookie. As you can see, not every cookie turned out to be a perfect heart shape, but that's okay. Then I baked the cookies, let them cool, and whipped up a simple batch of pink icing. Then I piped on some messages or shapes on the cookies. I didn't even use a piping bag, just a plastic sandwich bag with the end snipped off. I basically took the idea of those little candy hearts that always come out around Valentine's Day, and wrote messages like those, such as Be Mine, I Love You, Hug Me, You're Sweet, XOXO, etc. Then I piped some hearts on some and some arrows on the others. This was actually quite quick to do and very fun!

Lovely Cheesecake

Here is a simple but delicious cheesecake. It is a simple, baked cheesecake recipe on a graham crumb crust. My mother made it using the same basic recipe she always uses for cheesecake. This makes an excellent cheesecake that has a smooth, creamy texture, and isn't too rich or overwhelming. The cheesecake is perfectly delicious on its own, but there are also many ways it can be jazzed up. Some of our favorite ways to serve it are with fresh, sweetened strawberries, blueberry sauce or chocolate sauce. Any fresh fruit or sweet dessert sauce would be excellent with it. In this case, my mother placed some Valentine's chocolates on top once the cake had been baked and cooled: some milk chocolate hearts and some chocolate kisses. The cheesecake recipe could also be varied by using a different types of crust, perhaps pastry, shortbread, or chocolate crumb. I'm sure you could also add to the batter, perhaps a hint of orange zest, coffee grounds, or a spoonful of cocoa. Chopped chocolate, fruit, or nuts could also be added. It is easy and usually relatively safe to experiment with cheesecake, and the results can be quite rewarding!

Heart Pizzas

This is another dish I made for Valentine's Day: heart-shaped pizzas. I just made a batch of regular pizza dough, rolled it out, and cut it into hearts with a cookie cutter. Then I did some fine-tuned trimming with a sharp knife. You have to be careful not to stretch the dough too much, or it will just spring back and not look like a heart at all. Also, after the pizzas are baked, the dough rises a bit, and the hearts aren't quite as uniform in shape, but they are still pretty. I spread some sauce on to within approximately 2 cm of the edge, to show the heart-shaped crust, and put on some toppings. I kept the sauce to a minimum to avoid the dough becoming soggy and overladen, and I also went light on the toppings. The pizza turned out crisp on the outside, and nice and fluffy on the inside.
You could also use heart shaped pans, if you have them, or make one big heart pizza. I opted to make miniature pizzas, which are more like pizza slices.

Valentine's Bruschetta

This is a little side dish I made for Valentine's Day. I just made a quick batch of bruschetta and some heart-shaped biscuits out of a yeast bread dough. I placed a heart-shaped cookie cutter on a plate and spooned in some bruschetta. Then I carefully lifted the cookie cutter up so that the bruschetta would stay in the shape of a heart. The umbrella term bruschetta actually refers to the entire dish - not just the tomato topping, which is normally served atop the bread. Actually, bruschetta can also refer to bread that has been rubbed with just a little olive oil and some spices and grilled, it doesn't necessarily have to contain tomatoes, although most North American takes on the dish do. For the sake of Valentine's Day presentation, I served the bruschetta on a plate to make it in the shape of a heart, and just served the heart-shaped bread alongside it.

The bruschtta I made was fairly basic, and I didn't really follow a recipe, I just eyeballed the amounts. I used chopped tomatoes, finely diced onion, salt, ground black pepper, granulated sugar, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and garlic powder.
Contrary to popular belief (or Americanized pronunciation), bruschetta is not pronounced with the "sh" sound but with the "sk" sound. The dish is of Italian origin, and in Italian "ch" is always pronounced "k" and therefore "sch" is pronounced as "sk".

Valentine's Brownie Dessert

Here is the dessert I made for Valentine's Day. I started by baking a pan of simple brownies. I like to make these brownies, because you can frost them while they are still warm. This saves time and gives them a glossy appearance. I used a chocolate fudge icing. I allowed the brownies to cool, then I cut out some big hearts and some little hearts. I placed a large heart on a plate, topped with a few sliced strawberries, and topped with a small heart. Then I placed a chocolate-covered strawberry next to the brownie for garnish, and drizzled the plate with chocolate ganache. This dessert was actually relatively simple to prepare, and very tasty. I love the flavor combination of chocolate and strawberries. Any chocolate lover would love this dessert!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

I prepared some chocolate covered strawberries today to use as a garnish for a dessert for Valentine's Day tomorrow. It can be a bit difficult to get fresh strawberries at this time of year, however these strawberries were easy to find and taste quite fresh and sweet. Strawberries seem to be jumbo-sized now compared to what I remember getting years ago (some of these strawberries are closer in size to an apple!), but that makes them perfect for dipping! Chocolate covered strawberries are very quick and easy to make, but they  give a professional-looking touch. They add a real aspect of elegance to any dessert, and they are also great by themselves.
To prepare these strawberries, I washed them, patted them dry, and trimmed a few of the leaves. Then I dipped them each directly into a pot of melted semi-sweet chocolate and gently swirled them to coat. I placed them on a tray lined with parchment paper, and let them chill in the refrigerator for ten minutes. Then I melted one ounce of white chocolate, put it into a plastic bag, cut a tiny hole in the corner, and drizzled the chocolate over the strawberries. You can also just use a fork to do this, but I find you have more control using a plastic bag. I let them set in the fridge again.
I left the strawberry in the middle uncovered because I figured once it was dipped in chocolate, you wouldn't be able to tell that it is actually heart-shaped. It is a little hard to see at this angle, but I think the store tried to include one heart-shaped strawberry in every package for this week!