Like water for chocolate recipes

Delicious warming recipes containing fewer calories than traditional comfort food. The BBC is not responsible for like water for chocolate recipes content of external sites.

Read about our approach to external linking. A star rating of 5 out of 5. Indulge in chocolate-dipped strawberries for dessert or as part of a romantic picnic. Cut a strip of baking parchment and leave to one side.

To melt the dark chocolate, fill a small pan with 2cm water and bring to a simmer. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and rest it on top of the pan, ensuring the bowl isn’t touching the water. Stir the chocolate to gradually melt it. Gently hold the strawberries by the leafy top and dip into the chocolate.

Tap off any excess chocolate and put on the parchment to set. If you have any leftover chocolate, pour it onto another strip of parchment and leave it to set, it can be used again. If you’d like to decorate the strawberries, melt the white and milk chocolate and drizzle lightly over the fruit. This website is published by Immediate Media Company Limited under licence from BBC Studios Distribution.

2014 including popular series, all-time classics, and modern favorites. 2014 and are bound to get every reader turning pages. Wondering how to achieve perfectly set chocolate with a smooth and glossy finish? Follow our expert guide to tempering dark, milk and white chocolate, using basic kitchen equipment.

Tempering involves the process of slowly heating and then cooling chocolate so that the fat molecules crystallise evenly, resulting in a smooth, shiny finish when the chocolate sets. When tempered properly, it should produce a ‘snap’ when broken, while untempered chocolate will be dull and not break cleanly. Adding stable, crystallised chocolate lowers the temperature naturally, enabling regular crystallisation of the chocolate mass. The method is a replacement for using a marble working surface or a cold-water bath.

400g good quality chocolate, 1 serrated knife, 1 kitchen thermometer, 1 flexible spatula and 1 food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Place the roughly chopped chocolate in a bowl. Half-fill a saucepan with hot water, and put the bowl over it, making sure that the bowl does not touch the bottom of the saucepan. Slowly heat the water, ensuring it does not boil. Alternatively, use a microwave if you wish, but on defrost or at 500W maximum.

Stir regularly using a flexible spatula so that the chocolate melts smoothly. Check the temperature with a thermometer. 45C-50C for milk or white, remove the chocolate from the bain-marie. Set aside a third of the melted chocolate in a bowl in a warm place. Then add the melted chocolate that you have set aside to increase the temperature. Stir until the right temperature is reached.

When the chocolate is at the correct temperature, pour it into your mould. Leave it in a cool place to set. Top tip: If the chocolate has reached the right temperature and there are still pieces of unmelted chocolate, remove them before increasing the temperature. If you leave them, the chocolate will thicken very quickly and become sticky because of over-crystallisation.