Recipes With Chocolate And Strawberries
There’s no question that the pairing of chocolate and strawberry is a delicious one. But after getting your fill of the dipped strawberries - and I know, that does take quite some time as I have ample experience - you can expand your palette and cooking repetoire by incorporating the flavor of chocolate covered strawberries in different arrangements.
The first obvious idea is to top sliced strawberries on a decadent chocolate cake. This gives the cake lovers more of the moistness and volume to fill up for their dessert appetites and still provides a bit of the fruit accent. And as a red garnish on top of a very dark cake, it adds a bit of wow factor and dimension.
A strawberry mousse cake is also a nice option. This will give you a greater strawberry component as most recipes call for several cups of strawberries placed around the outside of the cake. And you’re still getting about twelve to sixteen ounces of chocolate folded in to the whipped cream to create the mousse. You can always go with a straight strawberry cake as well. Of course you’d be missing out on the chocolate entirely, and what fun is that.
You can go for a more simple option than a cake, and instead make a little delight like this: Cupcake Recipes: Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe. That will combine your love of chocolate with that red garnish in a smaller, more manageable set of little cakes. A little more casual and inviting, and also good for parties.
But you could simply reverse the process by having a cake or pie filled with the strawberries and go with a dollop of chocolate mousse, a little bit of chocolate syrup, or even some melted chocolate from the stove drizzled gently over the strawberry dessert. Now that sounds tempting indeed.
You can spice and stiffen up your strawberry chocolate partnerships by mixing in a little liquor. Some recipes infuse Grand Marnier in a small dose to reduce with the berries and give that richness without really having a signficant amount of alcohol in the final product. This will give you the cognac brandy flavor with hints of orange along with the strawberry and chocolate. I think this is a delightful combination and adds layers to your food enjoyment experience.
That is what desserts, and all of cooking, is about really. Adding up layer upon layer of flavor in subtle ways so that the person enjoying it realizes it’s a superb symphony of flavor. Yet they have a challenge describing exactly what all the ingredients are in the dish. It’s the undercurrent and hint and sophistication of extra touches that leaves the person wanting more.Mastering this takes some time and ability, but it sure is fun trying. And who wouldn’t want to make five or ten variations using these fantastic chocolate and strawberry ingredients to discover what works best. I think I’ll go back into the kitchen and brush up on my technique right now.
