Chocolate Berry Torte

Here's the recipe for the chocolate berries or orange sections. Pick out perfect strawberries with fresh looking green tops, or better still, get the long stemmed berries that are sold in many fruit markets. Wash and THOROUGHLY DRY the berries on paper toweling. If any of the berries have soft spots, don't dip them. The juice will leak out and the finished product will look awful. Melt about 6 ounces of very good quality bittersweet chocolate. I use Belgian or French chocolate, but Lindt or Tobler are also excellent. Line cookie sheets with waxed paper. When chocolate is melted and smooth pour it into a dish that will give you depth rather than surface. Pick up a berry by the leaves and dip it into the chocolate about 3/4 of the way, leaving the stems and a bit of the berry showing. Let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl and place the dipped berry onto the lined cookie sheet. Put in refrigerator to harden chocolate. If you want to get fancier, melt some white chocolate and dip the very bottom of the dark chocolate dipped berry into the white chocolate or put the melted white chocolate into a pastry bag, fitted with a very fine writing tip, and sort of 'write' squiggly lines all over the dark chocolate. I like to serve these berries on non-toxic green leaves or palm fronds that can be purchased from a florist. Orange sections dipped in chocolate are a bit trickier but fantastic. Completely peel an orange, being very careful not to pierce the membrane that surrounds each section. Remove as much of the pith that clings to the orange section. Blot the sections on paper towels to absorb ANY moisture. Melt the chocolate as described above and put it into a dish that is large enough to accommodate a whole section of orange. Holding the NPXR56B FOOD AND WINE BB TOPIC: FOOD SOFTWARE TIME: 07/06 5:58 PM

TO: NORMA WRENN (NPXR56B) FROM: NORMA WRENN (NPXR56B) SUBJECT: R-MM AARONSON