4th of July Fruit & Chocolate Skewers

Last Updated on December 26, 2023

This easy 4th of July party idea is excellent for kids and adults! The kids tend to fight over the cherries while the adults reach for the blueberries.

What I really like about this mess-free finger food is that it's super easy and requires just a few ingredients. You really can't mess them up! Who doesn't love chocolate covered fruit!? Especially when it's red, white and blue, and served on a stick. 🙂

Kids and adults love these!

Patriotic White Chocolate Fruit Skewers

Inspired by: Growing Up Gabel

INGREDIENTS:

• White melting chocolate (I used less than 1/2 a pound of the Candiquik brand)
• 1 large package of blueberries and/or 1 large jar of maraschino cherries
• Red and blue sprinkles (if you're making both cherry and blueberry skewers)
• Toothpicks

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Wash, rinse and dry your fruit. The cherries need to be strained and rinsed as well, otherwise they tend to turn the melted white chocolate pink.
2. Get your skewers ready by threading 3 pieces of fruit onto each toothpick. You can mix them up, but I prefer to keep them separate (blueberries on one, cherries on another). Also, I think it looks best to take the stems off of the last two cherries, leaving only the top cherry with a stem.
3. Place a large piece of parchment paper on your counter next to your work space so that it's ready for your dipped fruit to dry. You will also need an extra bowl to catch the sprinkles.
4. Once your skewers are reading for dipping, melt your white chocolate according to the package directions (usually 1-2 minutes in a microwave safe bowl).
5. While holding each pre-made skewer over the melted chocolate bowl, use a spoon to pour the chocolate onto just the bottom two pieces of fruit, leaving the top piece revealed. You will need to rotate your fruit skewer around to ensure that you  cover all sides. Let the excess chocolate drip off (I bang the toothpick against the edge of the bowl to speed up the process).
6. After the excess chocolate has dripped off, immediately cover the bottom piece of fruit with the opposite colored sprinkle (red sprinkles go with the blueberries, and blue sprinkles go with the cherries). Just in case you couldn't figure it out! Hehe.
7. Place your finished skewers on a piece of parchment paper to dry. The chocolate usually hardens in less than 10 minutes.
8. Once the chocolate has hardened, arrange the skewers on a small platter or in a small bowl. You can store them in the fridge if you would like, especially if you plan on making them the day before they are served.

TIPS:

• I've also experimented with raspberries and strawberries, but neither one turned out nearly as pretty as these. The raspberries are too mushy and fragile– I couldn't get them to stay on the toothpicks properly. The strawberries are just too big, and hard to cut into small consistent pieces. I suppose you could try the strawberries whole on larger skewers!
• The maraschino cherries don't go nearly as far as they look, so if you plan on using them, buy a large jar (or several of the smaller ones). Also, I've found that a lot of the cherries have imperfections and are missing stems, so use the wonky ones under the chocolate, and separate the best looking cherries for the top of your skewers.
• The basket of blueberries that I used had a huge variety of sizes. I tried to make each skewer with similar sized blueberries, but also found that if I used a slightly bigger blueberry for the uncovered blueberry, the end result looked much better because the white chocolate will increase the size of the berries.
• I just used what I had on hand, but I recommend the decorative toothpicks with the red and blue ends– they're so much more festive!
• For adults, consider draining the cherry juice out of the jar and replacing it with vodka to soak over night! 🙂

The blueberry skewers are my personal favorite, but the kids love the cherries!

These little red, white and blue party skewers are also perfect for memorial day! You could also experiment with different colored sprinkles for other holidays (like green for Cinco De Mayo).