Cocoa Sauce & Sugar Strawberries

There’s a secret to this recipe that creates a good, complex flavor: how the chocolate sauce is made. You want the strawberries to be sweet, and the sauce to be bitter. You want the strawberries to be slightly broken down by tossing them in the coconut sugar. You want the sauce to taste slightly burnt, but not enough to make it inedible. The contrast between the bitterness and the sweetness, and the juiciness of the strawberries and the graininess of the sugar, makes the dish interesting. The one bad part? Please don’t let this sit out too long or the textures will be lost! Eat it right away. For anybody who likes the idea of sweet upon bitter, I hope you enjoy making this dessert as much as I loved developing it!

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

2 tablespoons coconut sugar, plus more for sprinkling.

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 lime, for fresh juice

5 medium-sized strawberries

5 small-sized strawberries

1/4 lime, for fresh juice

Directions:

Slice the stick of butter into tablespoons. On medium-low heat, add all of the butter to a small saucepan. Allow to melt fully. Add the tablespoons of coconut sugar. Keep at medium-low heat. Stir until the sugar is completely melted. Allow to come to a low boil. Stir every minute with a large plastic spoon, and boil for about three minutes. Squeeze in the lime juice. Stir. Add the cocoa powder. Stir the cocoa powder in. Reduce the heat to low. Allow to low boil for five minutes, stirring every minute. Stir continuously for three minutes. Turn off the burner. Remove from the heat. Stir continuously for five minutes.

As the chocolate sauce sets, move onto the strawberries. It will take about ten minutes for the sauce to set and thicken. Remember to stir every minute or so to help evenly set, and prevent a film from developing.

Slice off the tops of the strawberries. Slice the strawberries into rounds. Add them to a small bowl. Squeeze the other quarter of lime over them, and toss. Separate half of the strawberries from the other half. Sprinkle coconut sugar over the half still in the bowl.

Once the chocolate sauce is done setting, drizzle onto the strawberries in halves. The first half is drizzled over the strawberries on the bottom. Add the second half of the strawberries back to the bowl, sprinkle coconut sugar over the second half, and add the rest of the chocolate sauce to the strawberries.