Start by washing the strawberries. I like to wash mine with fruit and vegetable wash and then rinse them in the sink. Then, transfer the strawberries to a towel and let them dry. Make sure that they are COMPLETELY DRIED before dipping them in the chocolate or the chocolate will separate from the strawberries.

Next, finely chop your chocolate bar. This will help the chocolate melt faster. After that, set up the double boiler. To do this, fill a saucepan with one to two inches of water and bring it to a boil on the stove. Once it's boiling, reduce it to a slow simmer and put a heat-resistant bowl on top. Then, add the chopped chocolate into the bowl. Make sure to mix the chocolate with a spatula the whole time so it doesn't burn. Also, be careful not to get any water into the chocolate because if that happens it will seize. To prevent this, I like to transfer the bowl to a towel once the chocolate is done melting on the stove. This helps remove any excess moisture from the bottom of the bowl. Take the chocolate off the stove when there are still a few chunks left so the chocolate doesn't burn. Then, mix the rest of the chocolate off of the stove.

Hold the leaves of the strawberries so they don't get chocolate on them. Then, dip the strawberries in the melted chocolate. Also, make sure to run the bottom of the strawberries along the edge of the bowl to remove any excess chocolate on the bottom of the strawberries. After that, put the strawberries on a sheet pan with parchment paper. This is where the chocolates will dry. It will take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour for the chocolate covered strawberries to dry. This depends on the time of year, weather, etc.

If you want to add toppings make sure to add them right after putting the strawberries on the parchment paper before they are dried. Feel free to get creative and use whatever toppings you'd like. Or, you can enjoy these chocolate covered strawberries on their own because they are super delicious that way as well. I like to add some finishing sea salt or some toasted coconut flakes on mine. Another option is to drizzle some white chocolate on top of the dark chocolate. To do this, we chose to use the Ghirardelli white chocolate melting wafers on the double boiler. Also, keep in mind that white chocolate will melt faster than dark chocolate. Once they were melted, we used a spatula and waved it over the strawberries in a back and forth motion to get the design we were looking for. For an added layer of detail, it's definitely fun to try if you're feeling creative. All of these options turned out super beautiful and delicious.