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CHOCOLATE FILLED STRAWBERRIES

Recipe Introduction


Everybody loves a chocolate covered strawberry, but they are a pain in the tohkus to make and they get all over you when you dive into them. Because of the brand of chocolate we use, everytime we served them people would just stand in front of them and devour. We had to come up with something different. This recipe is the result.Approximately 24 strawberries.





List of Ingredients



• 2 pints Fresh, large strawberries.
  
• 3 ea 3 1/2 oz. bars of Valrhona Noir Amer bittersweet chocolate.
  
• 1 C. Whipping cream.
  
• 1/3 C. Sweet (unsalted) butter.
  
• 24 Plastic coffee stirrers.
  






Instructions



1. Rinse the berries under cold filtered water and de-stem them using a 1/2" diameter melon baller. Set aside to dry.
   
   
2. Using a 3/8" melon baller, or an apple correr, remove about half of the inside pulp of each strawberry, being careful not to break through anywhere on the outside. Reserve the pulp and place the berries stem-side-down on baking racks. Refrigerate until chilled through.
   
   
3. Chop the chocolate bars into 1/4 inch pieces.
   
   
4. Prepare the genache in a one quart saucepan, bring the whipping cream just to a boil, remove at once from the heat, and stir in the chocolate and then the butter. Continue to stir until everything is fully melted and blended. Refrigerate to cool.
   
   
5. When the genache has cooled to the consistancy of pudding, scoop it into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4 inch straight nozzle.
   
   
6. Remove the berries from the refrigertor and use the pastry bag to fill each berry's cavity with genache and set them back on the rack. (Most strawberries will nicely stand on the end opposite their stem but, to be prepared for the obstinate ones, line an empty egg-carton bottom with some foil to hold them.)
   
   
7. After you have done a dozen berries, go back and stick a coffee stirrer all of the way down and straight into the top of each berry. Repeat Step 6 and 7 until all of the berries are filled. Be careful not to wait too long or the genache will harden too much for the stirrer to be inserted.
   
   
8. Return the berries to chill until serving time. Just before serving, clip the coffee stirrers off two inches above the top of the strawberry.
   
   
9. The reserved berry pulp can be pureed with 1/2 cup of granulated sugar per cup of pulp and then sieved to make a sauce for chilled, drained peaches or pears.
   
   






Final Comments


With this recipe there is no looking for and paying the priced of long-stemmed fruit, You are not worrying about dribbling genache all over the kitchen, the berries won't stick together as they warm on the serving tray, they don't tend to get all over the eater, and they really look great. Coffee stirrers of the small diameter straw type are best for this recipe. They can be found at office and restaurant suppliers or, as we do, can be "requisitioned" from your local coffee bar. The specified chocolate is 71% cacao solids. It is the main reason for the raves about our strawberries. Use it if you can but, in a pinch, another high cacao content bittersweet can do.