Learn how to make easy chocolate covered strawberries at home with just 3 simple ingredients and no seizing. I’ll show you how to get smooth, glossy chocolate using a microwave, and perfectly dipped strawberries every time. This fancy, chocolate-dipped treat is a beautiful dessert for Valentine’s Day, date night, Mother’s Day, or any special occasion.
Nothing says “I love you” more than a rich, chocolate dipped treat. Some of my favorites include chocolate covered Ritz cracker cookies, buckeye balls or even homemade fantasy fudge. But these chocolate covered strawberries just scream Valentine’s Day.
The great thing about this recipe is that you can melt the chocolate in the microwave, which makes it so much faster. These DIY chocolate covered strawberries look so elegant with the drizzle of white chocolate on top. Although they make a romantic dessert for date night, chocolate dipped strawberries make a quick and easy sweet treat for any occasion, and they’re a lot of fun to decorate with the kids!
Ingredients & Substitutions Notes
This chocolate covered strawberries recipe is so easy to make, and it uses just 3 simple ingredients…
- Dark Chocolate Melting Wafers – I used to use almond bark as my dipping chocolate, but I’ve since switched to dark chocolate melting wafers. They’re specially designed for melting, so you don’t have to add shortening, and you don’t usually have to temper the chocolate. You can also use milk chocolate melting wafers instead if you don’t care for dark chocolate.
- White Chocolate Melting Wafers – For fancy chocolate covered strawberries, I like to drizzle on a little bit of white chocolate once the strawberries have been dipped. Alternatively, you can dip them in the white chocolate and then drizzle with dark chocolate.
- Strawberries – It pays to use high quality fresh strawberries. When you’re picking them out in the grocery store or at a local farm stand, just make sure that they don’t have any soft spots or moldy spots.
How to Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Before getting started, line a large baking sheet with wax paper. Then you need to wash and dry the strawberries. Any extra moisture on the berry can cause the chocolate to seize, so it’s very important that you get your strawberries totally dry.
Once your strawberries are washed and dried, it’s time to melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds on high. Then stir it every 15-20 seconds, ’til totally melted and smooth. Let’s get started…
How to Dip Chocolate Covered Strawberries
- Grasp each strawberry by the stem, and dip in the melted chocolate as pictured below, twisting the berry as you lift it out of the chocolate.
- Shake off any excess chocolate before placing each dipped berry on the wax paper lined baking sheet.
- To contrast, you can drizzle white chocolate over the dark chocolate covered berries, or drizzle dark chocolate over white chocolate covered berries. You can use a spoon for this, but a piping bag makes this step a little bit easier.
- Allow the berries to set, so the chocolate will harden, by chilling at least 20 minutes in the fridge.
How to Serve Chocolate Covered Strawberries
That’s it! Once the chocolate has hardened, you can place your chocolate covered strawberries into gift boxes. They’re best served immediately, but they will last in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ’s
This is called seizing, which is when the dipping chocolate suddenly becomes thick, grainy and a little bit lumpy. Usually this is caused by excess moisture, which is why it’s important to dry your strawberries after rinsing. It’s also possible to overheat the chocolate, but this shouldn’t be an issue so long as you melt it in short bursts, as specified in the instructions.
Similarly to seizing, this is usually caused by either low quality chocolate, or excess moisture from strawberries that haven’t been properly dried after rinsing. Although it’s not usually necessary when using melting wafers, sometimes it might help to temper the chocolate. To do so, simply melt only 2/3 of the chocolate in the microwave at first. Then, once it’s melted and smooth, go ahead and add the rest of the chocolate to the melted chocolate, little bit by little bit. Stir the mixture in between each addition, making sure it’s totally melted before adding more. This will cool the chocolate down to a cooler temperature for dipping, which can help to prevent cracks. If you’d like to read more, here’s a great article that explains how to temper chocolate.
They’re best eaten the same day. Store any leftover chocolate dipped strawberries in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Some people like to freeze chocolate covered strawberries for up to 3 months. That said, they must be eaten either frozen or partially thawed, because they will turn to mush once fully thawed.
Optional Add-Ins & Topping Ideas
- Before the chocolate has dried, you can sprinkle a little flaky sea salt on top. This is also a great time to add nonpareils, coconut flakes or colored sanding sugar.
- You can also top your chocolate covered strawberries with finely chopped nuts, like almonds, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, and cashews.
- Instead of chopped nuts, sprinkle on crushed Oreo cookies or crushed graham crackers. Alternatively, add crushed pretzels for a savory twist.
- Last but not least, I love a fancy chocolate dipped strawberry drizzled with a little bit of caramel sauce or peanut butter sauce. Yum!
More Valentine’s Day Desserts
- Strawberry Waffles With Frozen Strawberries
- Homemade Red Velvet Cupcakes
- No-Crack White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
- Instant Pot Raspberry Cheesecake
- Strawberry Fluff Salad
- Pink Rice Krispies Treats or Strawberry Rice Krispies Treats
- Strawberry Filled Cupcakes
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Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Ingredients
- 10 ounces dark chocolate melting wafers or milk chocolate
- 10 ounces white chocolate melting wafers
- 2 pounds strawberries washed and dried*
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
- Add the dark chocolate to a microwave-safe measuring cup or bowl; and melt, starting at 30 seconds, then stirring every 15-20 seconds, 'til melted and smooth.
- Repeat with the white chocolate.
- Grasp each strawberry by the stem, and dip in the melted chocolate, twisting the berry as you lift it out of the chocolate.
- Shake off any excess chocolate before placing each dipped berry on the wax paper lined baking sheet.
- To contrast, you can drizzle white chocolate over the dark chocolate covered berries, or drizzle dark chocolate over the white chocolate covered berries.
- Allow the berries to set, so the chocolate will harden, by chilling at least 20 minutes in the fridge.
- Serve immediately or place in gift boxes.
Using the Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers is a total game changer in dipping anything. This stuff is delicious, smooth as silk, no clumpy looking dipped anything here! Love them!