White Chocolate Strawberries

When I think of spring and summer foods, straw-berries are right at the top of my list of seasonal fruits to get excited about. What's not to love? Juicy, beautiful, sweet, cholesterol-fighting....wait, you didn't know? Through a strange turn of events, my daughter (who was 5 at the time) had a high cholesterol reading. The very first thing the doctor told me was to increase the intake of strawberries and raspberries. Okay. While the following strawberry recipe is probably not what he had in mind, I like to console myself with the fact that at the root of this amazing dessert is a strawberry...which lowers cholesterol.

This is an impressive surprise-of-a-dessert that can be prepared while your burgers are on the grill. No kidding! Perfect for more formal dinner parties too! The fine test cooks at Bon Appetit came up with this one. The flavors appeared a strange combination to me. Had this recipe been in say Martha Stewart Living, I wouldn’t have tried it. For some reason her recipes don’t work for mere mortals like me. But usually the cooks over at Bon Appetit do their thing and create some great dishes.

This seriously is a MUST-TRY recipe. I am not a huge fan of white-chocolate and the thought of adding citrus didn’t add any excitement for me. But, WOW, make some extras, because you won’t be able to stop eating these! I got 5 extremely happy smiling faces with this one!

White-Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries with Citrus Sugar

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp finely grated orange peel

1/2 tsp finely grated lemon peel

6 oz high-quality white chocolate (I used Lindt), chopped

16 lg ripe strawberries

Line baking sheet with foil. Using fingertips, mix sugar and citrus peels in a small bowl until sugar is moist. Stir chocolate in small bowl set over saucepan of barely simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water.

Holding 1 strawberry by the stem end, dip 2/3 of berry into chocolate; shake excess back into bowl. Turn berry dipped end up and sprinkle with citrus sugar (actually, I just pressed one side of the strawberry into the sugar so as not to have to drop sugar all over the place). Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining berries, chocolate, and sugar. Chill until chocolate sets, about 30 minutes.