Mint Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

[now with pictures!]

So last week I felt like I continually encountered strawberries and mint flavored food items. Thursday I had a cupcake with mint and strawberry frosting. Friday I had strawberry ice cream mixed with mint chocolate chip ice cream. It was everywhere! Thats when I got the idea for dipping strawberries into mint flavored chocolate. I had never heard of anyone doing such a thing before, so I decided to go for it.

Mint Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

1lb of Strawberries (1 carton)

8oz. of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 tsp. of Mint Extract

First, you must prepare the strawberries. Rinse the entire carton and dry using a paper towel (this alows the chocolate to stick to the strawberries better). I left the stems on for this, but you may cut them off if you prefer it.

Next get a setting place ready for the strawberries to cool on. I, again, used a doubled piece of tinfoil placed ontop of a cookie sheet. (Using tin foil or parfin wax sheet makes it easier to peel off the strawberries with out ruining the chocolate coating).

Take your 8oz. of chocolate chips and melt them in the microwave (or double boiler if you have one). I suggest using higher quality chocolate for this recipe, just because half of what you will be tasting is the chocolate.

Once the chocolate is melted so that there are no lumps and that it is almost pourable, add in the mint extract. If you just want the mint flavor to be more subtle, try adding a half a teaspoon to begin with and add to taste from thereon in. If you're like me, and want the mint to be very noticible add in the full teaspoon (perhaps just a splash more).

Now you can dip your towel dried strawberries into the chocolate. Place each one onto the sheet and put them into the refridgerator to cool. It should take about 5-10 minutes to cool depending upon how much chocolate is on the strawberries.

If you are feeling creative you can use any remaining chocolate to decorate your strawberries. I used a ziplock bag to pipe a chocolate design onto the strawberries. By placing chocolate into one bottom edge and snipping off the end, this creates a make-shift pastry bag.

This was a very new taste for me, I think it may be an acquired taste. It did take me two strawberries to really appreciate the flavor combination. If you are more of a timid eater (as my mom is) do not judge it on the first bite, they are pretty good!