Chocolate fondue, that classic dessert of the 70s, has had a renaissance with fancy pots from high-end stores like Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma. It's offered on restaurant dessert menus and huge chocolate fountains show up at weddings and bar mitzvahs.
We are on the fence about chocolate fondue; sometimes a banana dipped in chocolate sounds really, really good. But on principle we don't like working for our meal, especially if we're out to eat. If we wanted to make dessert ourselves we would have stayed home. But maybe we're missing something. Chocolate fondue - what do you say?
Read on for tips on making fondue without a special fondue pot...
Chocolate fondue can be made in any small saucepan. All that a special fondue pot does is keep the chocolate warm - sometimes stirring it too to keep it evenly warm.
You can replicate this with a small steel or enamel saucepan. Heat the chocolate, using cream and a little rum or brandy and a lump of butter. You want the chocolate fairly thin. This will stay hot for at least 20 minutes, and if you need to reheat it just return it to the stove.
You can also put the pot over a candle using a warmer or chafing stand. This will keep it warm and liquid.
Use skewers, toothpicks, or your fingers to dip things in the chocolate. If we do have fondue we like:
• Marshmallows
• Yellow cake and angel food cake
• Strawberries, bananas and other fruit (try fresh figs!)
• Graham crackers
• Pretzels
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definitely hot for the first few minutes or so, but once you have a group of people crowding around the fountain and chocolate gets everywhere, it's pretty gross.
12-year-old-boy and coughing grandma bacteria: Hot or Not?
If loving melted chocolate is wrong, then I don't want to be right.
For the record, coincidentally, we just threw a fondue party this past weekend (cheese, followed by chocolate). Nary a 12-year-old nor a coughing grandma in sight. Must explain how we managed to not make a bit of mess. Or maybe we're just an exceptionally gifted group of individuals?
ooh - this could help:
http://www.joyfulabode.com/2008/01/20/keep-dipping-stuff-in-chocolate-ok/
Ritz crackers and chocolate, which does sound mighty tasty.
My sis broke out her new fountain this w/e. I was in charge of it... it was easy enough and tasted good, but there were chocodrips all over the place around the fountain and it was not easy to clean.
She will probably do it again, but once she has to do it all, I predict that it'll go into the garage sale pile.
I love chocolate fondue, but I don't think of the stuff served from the fountain gizmo as real fondue. I disagree with the instruction to create a thin consistency. You want it to be clingy, not drippy.
We just had a philly cheesesteak fondu last night and are definetly going to keep coming back to the pot. Ours is quite small and powered by candles, which is more suited for chocolate and cheese than cooking (a la Melting Pot).
Since when is fondu supposed to be clean? That's boring.
Hot!
Why would you want cold fondue?
Cheesecake dipped in chocolate fondue is fabulous...well, chocolate fondue in itself is fabulous. Not that I propose just eating it off a spoon, or anything...
And so long as you don't have folks who double dip, I'm not sure how 12-year old boy and coughing grandma bacteria would get in the fondue...unless you have really unhygienic friends and family.
This gets a big yuck from me - my sister in law made it over the holidays with one of these machines and to get the right consistency kept adding vegetable oil to it. I'm all for dipping any/everything in chocolate, but doing it this way grosses me out.
I always make a mess out of myself. I need neater deserts than this.
I love them - great conversation starter.
Chocolate fondue? Maybe. But no true chocolate lover can possibly enjoy the runny stuff they put in so-called "chocolate fountains".
i dislike the fountains as well - we had one at a recent corporate function and the "chocolate" tasted awful. but, i will have fondue with my family on occasion, maybe once a year, and with a small group, and good quality chocolate and dippers, i think it's pretty fun. i also don't think you need to add anything to the chocolate except maybe a little cream - it's probably harder to maintain the liquid consistency, but pure melted chocolate tastes so much better.
I have the classic 70's fondue pot from my parents (they got sick of it). It's even avocado green! Fondue is absolutely hot. But the gizmos sold as fondue pots are not hot. A fondue pot is already a gizmo, after all. And NOBODY needs a gizmo that periodically adds vegetable oil to a chocolate fondue! BLECH!
Oh, and to maintain a nice consistency? Alcohol. A tasty liqueur to be exact. Cream if the kiddies are involved.
I like the supervised, chocolate fondue fountains at events, but small-scale, at-home fondue sounds like more trouble than its worth. Besides, if I get a real hankering for fondue, I can head out to one of the local fondue restaurants.
See, I would think that the small-scale home fondue parties would be way more sanitary than big buffet/wedding/event chocolate fountains. There's a local restaurant that does a lovely little mini chocolate fondue and it comes to your table over a candle to keep it liquid. I have no problem with that. Fondue and fountains are not the same topic. Fountains are open to recirculate all the germs in the room, but fondue is fine as long as you don't double dip.
For those worried about germs: use the skewer to dip your item in the chocolate and then place dipped item onto plate and eat with a separate utensil, such as a small fork. Don't pop the skewer into your mouth ever... that way when you dip it into the fondue again, you're not spreading germs.
For chocolate fondue, we use 7 ounces high quality chopped dark chocolate (70% cacao), 6 tablespoons heavy cream, 1/4 cup orange marmalade and 3 tablespoons Grand Marnier. Heat up cream and marmalade till marmalde melts. On low heat, whisk in chocolate till melted. Remove from heat and stir in Grand Marnier. Pour into fondue pot. Delicious!
I can't imagine this would get much use in someone's home, but who doesn't love chocolate fondue once in a while? It's a yummy treat. My friends had a large chocolate fondue fountain at their wedding, in place of the traditional wedding cake or more modern version, cupcakes. There were strawberries, frozen cheesecake cubes, and a handful of other sweet treats to skewer and dip in the perpetually running chocolate. A tad messy, but so much fun, and a relatively unique alternative for a party!