This easy 4-ingredient recipe makes the most adorable little chocolate strawberry birds. They really are super-sweet, both to look at and to eat! Fresh strawberries play the starring role here, and then you will also need chocolate, sprinkles and candy eyeballs. Make these for Christmas, Valentine’s Day or another special occasion, and watch how quickly they disappear. They taste pretty amazing as well as looking so cute!
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Chocolate covered strawberry birds are a lovely festive treat. They’re also a fun project to make if you have a lot of fresh strawberries to use up, along with chocolate. Perfect for Christmas or Valentine’s Day!
Why You’ll Love Them
Easy: Although these are every bit as cute as little treats you might find at a bakery or candy store, you’ll be happy to learn they’re really easy to make and you don’t have to be great at making desserts or have any special knowledge or equipment to create them.
Delicious: If you like strawberries and milk chocolate, there is no way you aren’t going to love these. Milk chocolate and strawberries go perfectly together.
Unusual: Perhaps you’ve never seen any treats quite like these before. And you’re going to love to eat them. Since they’re so unusual, you might like to put some in a gift box and gift to friends and family.
Ingredients for Chocolate Strawberry Birds
Along with fresh strawberries, you will need either milk or semisweet chocolate, candy eyeballs, and round orange sprinkles to create these edible festive penguins. Yep, that’s all you need!
How to Make Chocolate Strawberry Birds
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card.
Melt the chocolate: Chop the chocolate and microwave it, in intervals, until melted, stirring often.
Prepare the strawberries: Wash and dry the strawberries. Make sure you dry them well, or else the chocolate isn’t going to stick.
Assemble the chocolate strawberry birds: Thread a strawberry on to a skewer and dip into the melted chocolate, before pressing on the candy eyes and making the orange sprinkles into a beak shape.
Let them set: Let the strawberry birds set for half an hour before serving.
Substitutions and Variations
It’s up to you whether to use milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate – either will work here. If you can’t find round orange sprinkles for the beaks, you can use any kind of orange candies. You should be able to get the round orange sprinkles (here) most places that sell them, though.
How to Serve Chocolate Covered Strawberry Penguins
These work as a sweet snack or treat, or you can garnish a bowl of ice cream with one or two. Another idea is to present them as a table centerpiece, perhaps adding a couple of savoury appetizers too, such as homemade jalapeno popcorn or holiday deviled eggs. They would be an adorable addition to a dessert charcuterie board, too.
How to Store Strawberry Chocolate Birds
Store: These only have a maximum of one day life expectancy and they’re best served as soon as they’re ready. You can keep them refrigerated for a few hours though, until you’re ready to serve them. Keep in mind the black part of the candy eyes can “bleed” if moisture gets into the candies – another reason they’re better served as soon as possible after making them.
Freeze: These chocolate strawberry penguins don’t freeze well at all, so enjoy them fresh. You can always halve the recipe if you aren’t going to have enough people there to eat them all in one day.
Chocolate Strawberry Birds FAQs
Frozen strawberries absolutely will not work for this recipe. You need to use juicy, plump, ripe ones, or else you will end up with mush instead of chocolate covered penguins!
If you’ve made chocolate dipped strawberries before you might be wondering why this recipe doesn’t call for any kind of shortening or oil. The reason is the strawberries contain enough moisture to soften the chocolate, so it’s just not necessary.
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Birds Recipe
Chocolate Strawberry Birds
Ingredients
- 1 Quart strawberries fresh, approximately 15 to 20
- 4 Ounces chocolate semi-sweet or milk, chopped
- 40 candy eyeballs 2 per strawberry
- 40 sprinkles round orange, 2 per strawberry
Instructions
- Wash and completely dry the strawberries with paper towels. The chocolate won’t stick to a damp berry.
- Put the chopped chocolate in a small, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave the chocolate in 30 sec intervals at 50% power until melted and smooth. Stir between each interval. It should take 5 to 6 minutes.
- Place a strawberry at the end of the skewer. This just helps keep the chocolate off your fingers. Dip the strawberry into the chocolate, leaving a triangle exposed (for the belly of the penguin). Allow the excess to drip off before pressing 2 of the candy eyeballs into the chocolate above the exposed part of the strawberry. Immediately press two of the round sprinkles into the chocolate just below the eyes. Press them in upright to give you a beak.
- Place the skewers in an upright position until the chocolate sets, about 20 to 30 minutes. I use a large piece of floral foam for the skewers but an empty jar or tall cup will work as well.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
These chocolate strawberry birds (or penguins) are surprisingly easy to make and they taste gorgeous too. The combination of fresh berries and chocolate is always a great one, and you can make these for a special occasion, such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas or simply because you can’t wait to make these fun treats and present them to loved ones in a little gift box!
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Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti of xoxoBella is a storyteller, food lover, dog mom and adventure seeker living on the Pacific coast. She shares her passion for recipes, dogs, sustainability, adventures, travel and philanthropy, in hopes of encouraging followers to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places and stand for a cause. Bella lives with Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease.
Bella Bucchiotti is a freelance food, travel, and lifestyle writer for MSN and the Associated Press Wire.
