From the story: The Skinny on Food.
I never really thought about hulling strawberries until I decided to make a strawberry almond milk smoothie. I wanted to remove the bitterness from the core and the leaves, so I watched a YouTube video on hulling strawberries. I was fascinated when I did it myself. It was easy and so much fun! Step 3 in the recipe below explains how to do it, but you can eliminate this step if you choose.
Guilt-Free Cacao-Covered Strawberries and Bananas
Ingredients
- ¼ cup coconut oil organic and virgin preferred
- ¼ cup raw cacao powder, dark or light organic preferred
- ⅛ teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
- 1/16 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt
- 1 pint strawberries organic
- 1 whole Banana, ripe but not soft
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 drops stevia to taste
Instructions
- Banana. Use banana that is ripe but not soft.
- If you want to use a frozen banana, peel and put banana in freezer in advance of making the chocolate dip, allowing enough time for the banana to freeze. If you do not want the banana to be frozen, skip this step. You can either cut the banana into round disc-like slices or leave banana whole and put a stick through it (for banana on a stick).
- Wash strawberries.
- If desired, hull strawberries like this: Place a straw at the bottom center of the strawberry. Push it upward and through the strawberry, out through the top. As it comes out the other side, so will the center stem and leaves! You now have a hole through the center of the strawberry, eliminating the bitterness. It is not necessary to go the extra step to hull them if you don't want to.
- Set strawberries aside on a paper towel to dry.
- Chocolate dip. Warm small pot on lowest heat and pour coconut oil into it. Allow coconut oil to liquefy. Turn off burner.
- Add raw cacao.
- Add vanilla.
- Add Himalayan sea salt.
- Add maple syrup.
- Add stevia.
- With a hand whisk, stir all ingredients until completely smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness by adding more maple syrup or stevia, to your liking.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment or waxed paper.
- Dipping strawberries. If you did not hull the strawberries, you can hold them by the leaves. If they are hulled use a fork to dip.
- After the first dip, place the strawberries on cookie sheet lined with waxed or parchment paper. Allow them to dry, approximately 2-3 minutes. You can put them into the refrigerator for a few minutes to speed the process (optional).
- Repeat this step by dipping the strawberries for an additional layer of chocolate. Put back on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes to set.
- For another layer of chocolate, dip the strawberries again. You can do this as many times as you desire until the chocolate coating is of desired thickness.
- Put on cookie sheet and in refrigerator to chill.
- Dipping bananas. Dip the bananas or banana slices repeatedly as with the strawberries.
- If you are using bananas that have not been frozen, once they are covered in your desired amount of chocolate, put them in the refrigerator to chill. If they are frozen, put them in freezer.
- Optional for banana. After dipping in chocolate for the last time, you can do something extra special and dip into nuts or coconut shreds, or any other accessory superfood of your choice.
