Fancy Pants Berries

What did I make last night that was Black White Red and Completely awesome?

Fancy pants berries! well Maybe fancy jacket berries... They are best known as tuxedo berries.

I was amazed at how beautifully they turned out (and how easy they were to make.) So when I got home I did some quick google searching to see how much these little darlings are sold for. I was SHOCKED. A dozen of these can be sold between $35.00 and $60.00! For 12 strawberries? Sheesh!

while I do understand these are an ala minute item and must be shipped over night if they are being sent anywhere - driving the price up. they are so easy to make I'm not sure why any once would fork over the cash for that. Can you imagine the cost for serving these at a wedding reception?

Here is how you make a Tuxedo berry

1. clean your fruit and dry it. Water getting into your melted chocolate will cause it to seize up.
2. melt a bowl of dark chocolate and a bowl of white chocolate coating disks. Chocolate coating differs from premium chocolate because it have a vegetable fat in it rather than cocoa butter. Chocolate coating is preferred when dipping strawberries because it does not bloom (the fat/sugar does not separate from the cocoa mass causing a marbling/streaking) when its refrigerated.
3. grasp the clean dry strawberry by the hull (leafy greens) and dip the front only in whit chocolate. No need to get the back - it will be covered by dark chocolate. set the dipped strawberry on a paper line sheet tray to set up
4. once the chocolate has set dip each side in dark chocolate. This will cover the back also and leave a white V shape in the front. made sure to shake all excess chocolate off so you do not get chocolate "feet" where the chocolate pools below the berry.
5. again set the strawberry to set.
6. Once set use the remaining melted chocolate in small paper piping cones to pipe on the three white buttons below the V of the shirt and the dark chocolate bow tie inside the V. the bow tie is made by connecting two filled in triangles.