a chocolate experiment

It's easy to get discouraged, isn't it? Whether it's the inability to stay on a diet/exercise plan quit smoking, beat someone in Words (with friends), climb a "problem" (dorky rockclimbing thing), or keep working at a thankless job, somehow we want to give up so easily. I guess this is sort of irrelevant - it's just something that I keep noticing in myself and people around me these days. February blues? Maybe.

Anyway, this post is part Valentines-y and part because of a frustration expressed to me in re: seized melted chocolate. Chocolate is notoriously temperamental. Get it too hot, it'll separate. Accidentally add a few drops of liquid, it'll seize. I made some chocolate covered strawberries, without measuring - just threw a few tablespoons of cream in a double boiler and some chunks of Trader Joe's Pound Plus dark chocolate and watched what happened.

Alas, it seized. I tried to find how to save the precious chocolate on some websites, but they all disappointingly told me it can't be saved, and that I should just make hot chocolate. Hot chocolate is indeed delicious, but not the same as chocolate covered strawberries. So, with some fiddling, I had some success despite their naysaying.

chocolate covered strawberries, the right way
(and how to save them when they seize )

3 oz or 1/2 cup chocolate chips, or other dark chocolate of your liking (after a grueling experiment, S & I decided we like Ghiradelli - basically, don't go too dark or it will be too bitter)
3 tablespoons cream
a dozen strawberries, washed and very dried with paper towels.
(skewered on toothpicks, if you want to keep your fingers clean)

this "bowl" is actually a pot balanced precariously on another pot

Set a heatproof bowl over a pot of barely simmering water. Don't let the water come up and touch the bowl - just an inch is enough. Throw the chocolate and cream into the bowl and melt, whisking. As soon as it's all melted and smooth, remove from heat carefully and dip your dry strawberries till coated and either put them upside down into a piece of styrofoam or just set on a piece of waxed paper. That's it! If the chocolate hardens while you're doing it, just put it back on the double boiler (that's the fancy name for the bowl-on-pot business) and stir till melted again. Refrigerate till the chocolate is set, if you can wait that long.

Alternative recipe: Depending on what you have at home, you can do the same with either 1/2 lb chocolate + 1 tablespoon shortening, OR just melt the chocolate by itself. You'll get different textured results with each method, obviously the more cream the softer.

Alternative method: Microwave the ingredients on half-power in a bowl for a minute, stir, then return in 20 second increments till smooth

-UNLESS-

Somehow, you haven't measured properly, or something weird happened and your chocolate seized. Then you need to save your poor, broken, clumpy chocolate or this happens:

it still tastes good, but it's not as beautiful.

I did some reading, and the way one site described it was that it's a little bit like a bowl of sugar. Add a few spoonfuls of water, it gets clumpy. But douse the whole thing with water, and you get a smooth mass. You need to have the right liquid:chocolate ratio.

 In another pot, melt a couple of tablespoons of butter. I think butter is best because it will harden in the refrigerator. I tried adding cream and shortening, but it messes with the texture too much since cream is still a liquid and shortening is still soft at around 40 degrees (fridge temp).

Whisk your seized chocolate, a little at time, into the butter until the desired consistency is achieved. You might not be able to use all the chocolate - if so, repeat with more liquefied butter.

ignore the condensation, please.

To decorate: melt some white chocolate chips either on the double boiler or in the microwave and drizzle onto hardened strawberries or put into a pastry bag and pipe. I obviously did this at the last minute =/