White Chocolate w/ Basil and Milk Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

For as long as I can remember, I have always gotten chocolate dipped strawberries around Valentine's day at my neighbourhood HEB store back in Texas. Who needs a holiday to like chocolate dipped strawberries? I sure don't! I decided I would try my hand at them just for funsies because I know a lot of other people want to do special things for their loved one on this particular time of year. I just want to eat them all, and I think I will try them again when strawberries are at their best and in season. I had such a fun time making these, I really got dirty and got to lick all of the chocolate off my fingers, it was great.

I decided to use milk chocolate and white chocolate, and for added fun I chopped up some fresh basil finely and sprinkled it on top of the white chocolate dipped strawberries. What a nice treat! It is a nice compliment together but you could use things like mint or taraggon. So many times we think of herbs as savoury and only mint gets used in sweet things. Well not today folks! Go on then give em a try!

Yum!

Ingredients:
1k fresh strawberries washed and dried thoroughly
100g Green & Black's white chocolate
100g Green & Black's milk chocolate
A few basil leaves
2 medium heat proof pyrex dishes




To Start:
Chop up your basil.
Set up a double boiler by getting a small saucepan with about 1 inch of water on the hob to simmer.
Bash up all your chocolate – I used milk first.
When the water has just started to simmer, turn it down to low and put the glass bowl on top and add in your chocolate.
To get it melted it will take about 5-10 minutes.
When it's all melted take off the heat and set aside to rest for about 3-5 minutes.
You can then put the white chocolate in a pan the same and get it melting.

To Dip:
If your strawberries have stubborn stems, you can use toothpicks to poke in them to hold the strawberry while dipping.
Don't for get about your white chocolate, keep on stirring until smooth.
Take a spatula and scrape all the chocolate to one side of the bowl.
Take the strawberry and gently press it into the hot chocolate and twirl it around until it's covered.
Let it drain off a bit and then put it on a rack or someplace that it can get cool.
Repeat until you have the desired amount of milk chocolate strawberries you want.
While your white chocolate comes to perfect melting repeat the same for the strawberries and sprinkle some with basil if you like.
Also for decoration you can take your spoon and dip it into the white chocolate and drizzle on top of the milk chocolate ones.
And also you can drizzle the milk chocolate onto the white ones.
Chill in the freezer for 30 minutes before eating. Or refridgerate for 1hr.

Raspberry Chocolate Truffle Cups with Bourbon Biscuits

These are a romantic little treat for a special dinner for two. This recipe makes just two servings which is perfect for a hot date. They are really simple to make and could fool anyone into thinking that they took hours to create. Since they're made almost entirely of chocolate I would make these on the day and leave them out, because if you put them in the fridge they tend to get really hard and will break any glass as you try to dig them out. Enjoy!

Delicious and Creamy!

Ingredients:
100g Lindt Excellence 70% dark chocolate
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
1/3 c. double cream
10-12 fresh raspberries
6 Bourbon biscuits (or any chocolate biscuits)
25g melted butter

To Start:
Get the chocolate going, bash up the bar into lots of little pieces.
Heat the cream very very gently until hot but not boiling.
Pour over the chocolate and let sit for about 20 minutes before stirring.
After it's sat, stir vigorously until a light thick consistency.
Set aside.

To Cup It:
Melt the butter.
Blitz the biscuits (including filling), including the filling.
Mix the melted butter in with the biscuits until thoroughly mixed.
Press half the biscuit mixture between two ramekins or glasses.
Add a couple of raspberries and press down firmly.
Divide the truffle mixture between the two containers and smooth out on top.
Add the remaining raspberries to the glasses, and top with the remaining biscuit mixture.
These do get quite hard so I would leave them out before serving for a while.