There’s just something about strawberries that reminds me of Valentine’s Day. Maybe it’s because they’re red or maybe its because chocolate dipped strawberries are a pretty common symbol of romance. Whatever it is, I took on the challenge of trying out various recipes involving strawberries and I’m here to share the things I have come across with you!
With covid restrictions in place almost everywhere around the world, I think it’s safe to say that this year’s Valentine’s Day is looking a bit different already. Whether you’re planning to do a covid-style goodies drop off to loved ones or just treat yourself to some much needed TLC, below are some perfect homemade gift ideas to make this February a little less sucky.
1. Make a strawberry tanghulu bouquet
Tanghulu is a popular Chinese street food in Northern China. It’s basically just sugar coated fruit but instead of just dipping fruit in sugar, you are dipping it into a melted sugar/water mixture that results in a beautiful hard-shell coating. Also, it’s very fun to eat.
I followed the instructions on Aubrey’s Kitchen, which I think best describes the process if you don’t have a candy thermometer. It’s actually a really simple process and you only need sugar, water and strawberries to make it!
Basically, I washed and thoroughly dried some large strawberries and skewered them before dipping into the tangulu sugar mixture. When they were cooled off and the sugar coating hardened, I stuck them into a mason jar to form a pretty bouquet!
However, I did find that the tanghulu is best eaten right away and the berries will begin to drip moisture after a while, so I would suggest this as a gift to someone in your household, a neighbour or something to make with your significant other or roomate for dessert.
Just remember to not stir the mixture at all, no matter how tempted you are! Everything came together by the time my sugar was ready to be taken off the heat (I took it off after about ten minutes and it became slightly darkened) and my skewered strawberries were ready to be dipped.
2. Gift a batch of freshly baked strawberry cookies
Vera at OMG Chocolate Desserts has an amazing recipe for strawberry cream cheese cookies. These cookies were reminiscent of cheesecake (my favourite dessert) and were the perfect amount of refreshing and sweet.
I love gifting cookies in a box with a ribbon, so you know I’ll definitely be baking these again soon! Unlike other recipes, this recipe calls for fresh strawberries which were a nice touch in contrast with the white chocolate chunks. What I really enjoyed about this recipe was that it’s a drop cookie and I was able to whip up the batter, spoon it onto my baking sheet and have them ready in under an hour.
3. Chocolate dipped strawberries with a twist
I’ve been seeing these marbled strawberries all over the internet and I finally decided to just wing it and try it for myself. It was so fun to make and so so simple.
For the pink marbled strawberries, I dropped a few drops of food colouring directly into a bowl of melted white chocolate and stirred with a skewer just until I got some decorative lines. Then I dipped washed and dried strawberries into the chocolate and let them set on some parchment paper.
When the chocolate was hardened, I placed the strawberries into a decorative gift box and lined them with cupcake liners. So easy! You can totally play around with this method and use various colours of food colouring, or even mix milk chocolate and white chocolate to get a more traditional look.
And there you have it! Three incredibly easy and fun homemade Valentine’s Day gifts using strawberries! I’ll definitely be remaking these in the upcoming weeks to gift to my family and hopefully bring a little bit of extra love into the household this Valentine’s Day 🙂
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