Tequila Rosé Chocolate Covered Strawberries

                My favorite dessert to make is hands down chocolate-covered strawberries. They can be the perfect close to a fancy dinner, sweet item for a ladies wine night, or the kickoff to a sexy night in for two. With so many chocolate-covered strawberry occasions, it’s no wonder I make them so often! What sets my chocolate covered strawberry recipe apart is the alcohol bath that I soak these sweet berries in before coating with semi-sweet chocolate. Trust me, once you taste these succulent berries, eating a nonalcoholic berry will make you feel like you’re selling yourself short. Don’t say I did not warn you.

               When it comes to perfect chocolate-covered strawberries, the taste is just as good as the appearance. Pro tip: you do not want to get the stems of the berries wet. Dry stems have a brighter and vibrant color. Not to mention, you will depend on the stems of the berry to hold throughout the making process, and eventually, throughout the eating process. That said, you don’t want them to be wilted, hard to grab, or laying flat on the berry. Keeping the stems dry throughout the process helps a bunch. To wash the berries, try holding them by the stem and running under cool running water or carefully dunking in a bowl of clean water. Once the berries are clean, carefully place the berries upright in a shallow bowl. Again, we don’t want our stems wet, when looking at the bowl top down, you should be able to see the stem of each berry.

                Next, pour 1 cup of rosé and 1 cup of tequila in the bowl filled with the upright strawberries. Try not to pour the liquor directly onto the stems of the berries. The alcohol mixture should cover most of the berry except for the stems. If the alcohol mixture is not covering most of the berry, try adjusting your bowl size.  The brand of alcohol you use is completely up to you. I used both rosé and tequila that I would generally drink. If you have an inexpensive yet delicious bottle of rosé on hand, that will work perfectly.

Allow your berries to soak in the alcohol mixture for at least an hour or overnight in the fridge. Once the berries are done soaking, remove the berries from the liquor and place the berries on a paper towel for drying. Chocolate adheres better when the strawberries are dry.  Allow the berries to dry for 5-7 minutes, rotating each at the 2-3-minute mark.

PRO TIP: save the berry-infused alcohol for a delicious cocktail.

As your berries dry, prepare a serving dish by lining with parchment paper, wax paper, or arranged cupcake wrappers. I prefer using the cupcake wrappers option when hosting parties. It makes it easier for my guest to throw a few on their plate without worrying that other items will touch the chocolate. Plus these berries can get a bit messy to eat, guests can use the cupcake wrapper as a chocolate catcher when eating on the go.

Melting the chocolate is pretty easy. You may have heard others say you need a double boiler and oil but you absolutely don’t. Just place the chocolate in a microwave-safe dish, microwave for 30 seconds, stir and repeat. This process should be repeated once or twice until the chocolate is completely melted with no lumps. The incremental heating prevents you from burning the chocolate and the incremental stirring prevents lumpy chocolate.

Holding the strawberry by the stem, dip inside the melted chocolate, and rotate slowly until all sides of the berry are coated. Placed the coated berry on the prepared serving tray. Repeat this process until all berries are coated. You should work quickly to complete this process but if the chocolate happens to thickens or get lumpy, pop in the microwave for 10-15 seconds then stir. Feel free to get creative and top with any of your other favorite toppings like white chocolate, caramel drizzles, or crushed cookie crumbs.

 Once all berries are coated, place serving tray in the fridge for 45 minutes or until the chocolate hardens. Enjoy!