Chocolate Covered Berries with Mint Leaves!

It's finally Spring! And what better way to procrastinate on term papers than to make chocolates with fresh produce? Yummmmmmmmmm.... I imagine these would be good in clusters, too! If you use a little chocolate as glue to stick a raspberry, a blackberry, and a couple blueberries, you could dip the whole cluster in chocolate and garnish with a mint leaf! Whoa.

Chocolate Covered Berries with Mint Leaves

Ingredients:

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Oil (olive or coconut works well without imparting too much extra flavor)
• Fresh berries! (NOT frozen) (I used raspberries and blackberries)
• Fresh mint leaves (for garnish, and also for flavor)
• Salt (optional)

Materials:

• Glass bowl
• Toothpicks
• Spoon
• Parchment paper
• Baking sheet or plates (whatever will fit in your fridge)

Directions:

1. Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips with 1/4tsp of oil per cup of chips, stirring until smooth and as liquid as possible (taste to make sure it's not oily; if it is, add more chocolate). (Note: if berries are a little under-ripe, or if you want a slightly more popped flavor, add a pinch of salt to the chocolate before coating.)
2. Skewer berry on toothpick and swirl in chocolate, using spoon to cover berry entirely. Place on parchment paper in fridge to harden. If there are holes left by the toothpick, use another toothpick or a fork to place more melted chocolate on the bald spot.
3.  For garnish, use melted chocolate as glue to stick a small fresh mint leaf atop each berry!

Raspberries! Little leaves are the best for these, as large ones can overpower the flavor.

Blackberries! The mint really adds an extra oomph to the blackberry flavor, plus a little salt offset the tang of underripe berries. =)