I love chocolate covered strawberries and eat them more often than I should.
Sometimes I am so impatient that I just melt me a big old bowl of chocolate and grab a handful of juicy red strawberries and start dipping. This girl is not waiting for some chocolate to harden on a strawberry.
My love for this wonderful flavor combination is the reason for these chocolate cupcakes & starwberry cupcakes.
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The secret to this delicious strawberry frosting is the freeze-dried strawberries. I actually prefer the taste over fresh fruit, and they work much better because you don’t have to worry about excess liquid making everything soggy. If you don’t have freeze-dried strawberries, you can substitute fresh strawberries, strawberry jam, or strawberry preserves. Just be sure to remove as much liquid as possible if using fresh strawberries.
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INGREDIENTS
1.5oz of freeze-dried strawberries ( I used two .7oz bags but you can add more/less flavor to taste) Please note that this is not 7 oz but .7oz!
*1 cup butter, softened
4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup of Milk – use more if frosting is too thick adding small amounts at a time
DIRECTIONS
1. Put freeze dried strawberries into a food processor to create a powder or use a Ziploc bag and smash with rolling pin or what ever you have on hand that will work. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and/or shortening together until smooth.
3. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth
4 Add your powdered strawberries to mixture and continue to add remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIS
You don’t need a recipe for chocolate covered starwberries but here are a couple of tips that have found made a huge difference:
- After washing the strawberries, lay them on a towel to completely dry. Pat with a towel/papertowel if needed. Get them as dry as possible.
- Use the best chocolate you can afford. I have worked for the state for over 20 years to the best I can afford is not even the good stuff at Walmart. With that being said, I have found a that using Candiquick chocolate taste, and covers better than the cheaper almond bark and is only slightly more expensive.
- Add more milk or powdered sugar if needed to obtain desired texture.
*Note: You can use 1/2 Cup butter & 1/2 cup vegetable shortening instead of all butter or, if you want to go dairy-free, use only shortening. I use the crisco shortening sticks from Walmart.