How to make dipping chocolate

This might seem silly, because chocolate is an easy thing to melt. And in the technical sense, I agree -- it's easy to turn solid chocolate into liquid chocolate. But depending on your intended use, you can use the melting process to bring out all the delicious hidden flavors lurking behind that rich chocolatey goodness...

Whether you're dipping strawberries, truffles, biscotti, or just your fingers, the basics for making good dipping chocolate are:

1. Chocolate, and
2. Butter
   

Some recipes call for using shortening instead of butter, but I haven't seen any advantage to doing so. I prefer butter because it's something I always have on hand, whereas shortening might require a trek so deep into the back of the pantry that I may never find my way out again. So here's what you do:

Use about a tablespoon of butter for every half cup of chocolate. Melt everything in a double boiler, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. [By the way, a double boiler is a bona fide uni-tasker. You don't need to go out and buy a double boiler -- just take a metal mixing bowl or any small saucepan, put it on top of a bigger saucepan which has some water in it, and bring the water to a boil. Then put all whatever you're melting into the mixing bowl or small saucepan on top.]

1. Chocolate-dipped fruit
   If you're making chocolate-dipped strawberries or whatever other fruit has caught your fancy (have you tried chocolate-dipped prunes? no, seriously -- apparently that's a thing that some people love), you probably want to keep the dipping chocolate as simple as possible. For this, just butter and chocolate will do.
   
   
2. Dipping something nutty
   Maybe you're trying to add a chocolate layer to some biscotti, or maybe you're dipping truffles. Maybe you're just dipping nuts themselves for a quick & easy but still somewhat decadent dessert. Either way, the chocolate can be much richer this way. Exciting! So here are the ingredients for melting in the double boiler.

1/2 cup dark chocolate*
1/2 tsp. instant coffee
1-2 Tbsp. butter
pinch of salt

* Sometimes I use unsweetened baking chocolate and sometimes a dark chocolate bar, whichever is on hand. Taste the chocolate mixture when it melts and add sweetener and whatever else until it suits you.

Cleaning tip
When everything in sight is chocolate-dipped and you have produced delicious dessert to your heart's content, you might notice the gross sticky mess you've created in your double boiler. Scrape off any remaining bits of chocolate from the bottom of the bowl (though why would there be any chocolate left?!) and fill dirty bowl with water. Heat up the water (may as well use the saucepan/mixing bowl as a double boiler again), which will liquefy the left-over chocolate gunk and make it much easier to clean up.