Fondue Part 3

Chocolate fondue is the final stage of any good fondue party. Whether you’ve served other courses of fondue or you’re just doing the chocolate course, it is always a strong finish. Chocolate fondue is essentially a dessert bar that can be thrown together with items from the pantry, a little chocolate, and some cream.

You are limited only by your imagination, what’s available in your area and your willingness to try new combinations. This is a great time to tell your kids yes to all their food ideas. Go a little bananas! It’s chocolate…what could go wrong?

Chocolate fondue is also an ideal dessert for a group that is needing to be gluten free, as there are numerous dipping options that are gluten free. Just make sure ALL the dippers are GF. Once you dip a non-GF dipper in the chocolate, it’s no longer safe for the ones needing GF. You can tailor chocolate fondue to the many dietary needs of your group without too much fuss, and just keep moving.

I use different recipes for chocolate fondue all the time. It’s another way that I like to play with flavor. We’ve done caramel variations, peanut butter variations, coconut milk variations, liqueur infused (adults only…maybe?), and even cheater varieties that use sweetened condensed milk and don’t even need to be served especially warm. Today I’ll share the purist version. I’ll share the other variations somewhere along the way in the future.

When choosing chocolate for your fondue, you really can go with what you like. I recommend a high quality chocolate chip, like Ghirardelli or Guittard, if you are not planning to use a finer chocolate. You can use chocolate bars, or chocolate wafers. Use a chocolate you like. You can also go as dark as your preference. Younger people tend to like a 55% dark or a semi-sweet chocolate.

Blended, whole fat, coconut milk or cream can also be used in place of the dairy cream. Chocolate needs fat to melt nicely, so don’t try to cut calories or fat here.

Items to dip are truly limitless. I usually let the kids take full responsibility of the dippers list. I’ll put a few of our family favorites and sorted categories below.

Gluten Free and mostly Dairy Free: All fruit! Bananas, strawberries, tart apples and pineapples are amazing. Marshmallows, potato chips, Rice Krispy Treats, and crispy bacon (oh yes- just went there).

Regulars include brownie bites, pretzels, pound cake, angel food cake, vanilla waffers, and graham crackers.

Just pull whatever you’ve got in your pantry and fruit drawer out and see what works!

You do not have to have an electric fondue pot for chocolate fondue. The pots with candle warmers tend to work fine, if slowly, but can be helped along with some warming in the microwave. No fondue pot? You can also use a little crockpot set on warm.

Chocolate Fondue

Recipe by meltedkcCourse: Dessert

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Ingredients

3/4 cup heavy cream
12 oz chopped chocolate (or a bag of good chocolate chips)
1 tsp vanilla extract *see more options in notes

Directions

Gently heat cream over the stove top or in the microwave just to a simmer.
Pour heated cream over chocolate. Allow to sit for 2 minutes before stirring. Stir in vanilla.
Pour into fondue pot or warming vessel and begin dipping!

Notes

*Almond extract or any liquer can be used in place of the vanilla.
*Tasty liquers include Kahlua, Amaretto, bourbon, and irish cream.
*If you’d like a more fruity flavor, zest an orange into the chocolate and add a splash of orange extract or liquer.