Chocolate Covered Strawberries

May I just start out by saying how heavenly and luscious and delectably delicious these are? ... These are so heavenly and luscious and delectably delicious! I decided to put almond extract in the chocolate chips rather than vanilla, and I am so glad I did. The chocolate, almond, and strawberry flavors create an extremely unique but perfectly harmonious trio. The chocolate is so smooth as it melts in your mouth and the strawberry is oh so juicy. Heavenly! One more time, just for the record: Heavenly!

A word of caution to this tail: be ever so careful melting the chocolate, or you will fail. Well, almost. If you add the almond extract to the chocolate chips before melting them, you will end up with a hard lump of seized chocolate. And your spatula will melt. We won't go into the details of how I know this; just take my word for it on this one. I used the extra melted chocolate to make chocolate covered pretzels--also delicious.

3/4 C Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 T Butter
1 tsp Almond Extract
1/4 C White Chocolate Chips
20 Fresh Strawberries

Wash a dry strawberries. Melt chocolate chips with butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring so as to keep it from burning. When butter and chocolate chips are melted, add almond extract and stir until combined. Remove from heat. Dip strawberries in the chocolate 2-3 times before placing on waxed paper. Chill chocolate-covered strawberries for about 5 minutes.

While strawberries are chilling, heat white chocolate over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and retrieve chilled strawberries. Using a spoon, drizzle white chocolate over each strawberry. Chill strawberries again until all chocolate is hardened. They are best when kept refrigerated and served cold.

Mahlzeit!
-Coriaunty