Rinse strawberries thorougly to remove dirt and dust.
Allow the strawberries to dry completely. If there is any moisture left, the chocolate has a tendency not to stick to the strawberry.
The chocolate can be melted either in the microwave on in a double boiler. To melt chocolate in the microwave, place one bag of chocolate chips or chunked chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, and heat for 2 minutes. Stir the chocolate with a clean, dry spatula and heat again at 30 second intervals until chocolate is melted and smooth. To melt chocolate in a double boiler, place the chips or chunked chocolate in the top portion of the double boiler and heat on low heat stirring occasionally until chocolate is melted. Make sure that absolutely no water gets into the melting chocolate due to the fact that it will seize and seperate.
Once the chocolate is melted add 1/2 cup of half and half and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the chocolate and stir.
Push a toothpick into the stem ends of each strawberry.
Dip each strawberry into the chocolate allowing any excess to drip off.
Turn the strawberries over and poke the toothpick into a piece of styrofoam so that they can dry evenly. They can also dry on waxed paper if stryofoam is not available.
Once the chocolate has set, they can be drizzled with melted white chocolate or double dipped again to give them a decorative look.
The strawberries can be served after the chocolate has set. Keep dipped strawberries in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
