Fondue was all the rage in the 70s, but it is quickly gaining popularity again. When you think of delicious fresh fruit drowned in chocolate, it’s not hard to see why. At your next get together, why not try out a chocolate fondue? It’s easy to prepare and sure to please every chocolate lover!
What You’ll Need
- 4 cups of chocolate (ideally in chips or pellets)
- 1 – 250ml carton of real whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 fondue pot with forks
- 1 tealight
- Items to dip
The best way to buy fondue chocolate is from the bulk section of your local supermarket. Don’t bother buying the chocolate specially made for fondue unless you want to take the lazy (and significantly more expensive) route.
Prep Work
- Try to get most of your fruit cut up before you start working with the chocolate because it will require your complete attention during its preparation.
- Take your whipping cream out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you start so that it is at room temperature.
- Put the chocolate in a pot and place it over another pot filled with boiling water (or use a double boiler, if you have one). It’s important not to place the chocolate on direct heat or it will likely burn.
- Add the butter and stir a bit until the chocolate starts to melt. Once chocolate and butter begin to melt, add the whipping cream. Continue to stir slowly and gently over the boiling water until the whole mixture is smooth and creamy. It may not appear to be combining at first, but keep stirring and it will come together.
- Transfer the chocolate to the fondue pot, put a tealight underneath to keep the chocolate warm and start dipping!
What Could Go Wrong
There are several ways that your chocolate fondue could go disastrously wrong. Most of the following actions will result in the chocolate seizing up, which means instead of smooth, creamy fondue chocolate, you’ll have thick, grainy, lumpy chocolate. Any of these things could ruin your chocolate:
- Not adding butter and cream: The butter and cream help the chocolate stay smooth and bind it all together. If you don't add these it will seize.
- Placing on direct heat: Don't put your pot on the burner or the chocolate will burn!
- Stirring too fast and hard: If you do this the chocolate will seize up.
- Getting water in the mixture while melting: This will also cause the chocolate to seize up.
- Too much heat in the fondue pot: Check the height of your candle. If the chocolate seems to be burning where most of the candle heat is concentrated raise the pot a bit higher above the flame and/or stir the chocolate occasionally while you're dipping.
What To Dip
Fruit is the most popular thing to dip into chocolate fondue. Try bananas, strawberries, apples, pears, pineapple, grapes or cherries. You could also go the full indulgence route and dip items that are desserts on their own into the chocolate. Consider pieces of cake, cookies, marshmallows, small muffins or donuts. Finally, you may want to incorporate some salty snacks into the mix to prevent sugar overload! You can have regular chips or pretzels on hand either to eat alone to counter the sweetness, or to dip in the fondue (the idea may seem odd to you, but the taste is a true sensation).
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