Summer's Candy Bar

I'm hardly against kids eating sweets. Nor do I think chocolate should be relegated to their annual birthday bash. But candy bars, filled with trans fats and other unrecognizable ingredients, are an unsatisfying source of nutrition-less calories.


In a Kitchen Kid Cooking Class this week, I watched 5 kids descend on their just-made creations of chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate-dipped bananas like seagulls flocking to a bag of chips left unattended at the beach.


Now this recipe is hardly complicated, and I'm most definitely not the first to make it. But the act of melting 6 ounces of pure, dark chocolate (no additives, no big words) gave these budding chefs such genuine and unequivocal joy, made me really question the appeal of a Twix. Not to mention the process in and of itself brought almost as much pleasure as the tasty treat (albeit rich in vitamin C and yes, those antioxidants hiding in dark chocolate).


Sure, it would be great if every kid reached for fresh fruit sans the chocolate. And many do. But adding just a touch of something as forbidden as pure chocolate, and watching the kids lick it from their fingers and their lips, surely makes a case for chocolate covered strawberries, and frozen banana pops, being Summer's Best Candy Bar.


Recipe:
Melt 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Indulge by dipping 1 pint of strawberries and Popsicle clad bananas. If you crave a more sophisticated taste, stir chocolate into 6 ounces of near-simmering heavy cream. Even a 3 year old can do it: watch Mark Bittman's Mini Minimalist make this simple ganache.