The Best Dark Chocolate Fondue Recipe (with Honey and Cognac!)

Delicious Dippers for Your Chocolate Fondue

Photo credit: Boo Lee [CC-BY-2.0], via Flickr

Any food that pairs well with chocolate and can be cut into bite-sized chunks or cubes is fair game. Depending on how your guests feel about dipping "finger foods" into the chocolate fondue, you also can use rolled lace wafer cookies, pretzel logs and other chocolate-compatible tidbits. Here are some suggestions for delicious dippers for my dark chocolate fondue recipe.

• Whole, bite-sized fresh fruits such as individual grapes, pitted and stemmed cherries, small strawberries (hulled or not). Tip: Soft berries such as raspberries, blackberries or blueberries taste divine dipped in the warm chocolate; just make sure you don't lose them in the fondue pot!
• Bite-size chunks of fresh fruits such as pineapples, apples, pears, peaches and/or bananas. Fresh or frozen banana chunks are delicious when dipped in warm chocolate fondue! (Tip: Slice the bananas thickly on the bias to make them wide enough to spear easily with both tines of the fondue fork.) Individual segments of firm, fresh oranges or clementines also can be used. (Take care not to puncture the segments when you are peeling them and removing the excess pith.)
• Dried fruit The flavors of luscious figs, tangy apricots, tart mangoes and other fruits intensify when the fruits are dried, making them a perfect foil for the rich, dark chocolate fondue.
• Crystallized ginger or candied citrus peels These chewy treats can be purchased but also are easy to make, and their strong flavors are enhanced by a quick dip in a pool of warm, dark chocolate.
• Marshmallows Marshmallows may not be as sophisticated as some of the other dipping tidbits, but when drenched in warm chocolate they just melt in your mouth. Full-sized marshmallows are preferred, since both tines of the fondue fork can be pushed through them to secure them during dipping and removal from the chocolate fondue.
• Cubes of firm, non-crumbly cake such as angel food cake or pound cake (plain or marble). Be sure not to use a cake that will crumble when you spear it on a fondue fork or dip it into the fondue.
• Frozen brownie cubes Buy or make an uncut pan of brownies. Freeze the brownie slab and then cut it into bite-sized cubes. Keep them in the freezer until serving time.
• Frozen cheesecake cubes Buy or make a crustless cheesecake (or slice off the crumb crust neatly). Freeze it until very firm, then cut it into cubes. (Use a very sharp knife dipped in hot water, wiping off the blade with a paper towel and dipping it in hot water again before each new cut.) Put the cheesecake cubes back into the freezer until serving time so they won't melt or fall apart when they are dipped into the warm chocolate fondue. Sinfully delicious!
• Ladyfingers - purchased or homemade. Try this recipe for Soft Lady Fingers from the October, 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine.
• Meringue cookies - purchased or homemade. Try this recipe for Meringues by Colin Cowie, courtesy of Epicurious.com. Try piping them into long rods so that you can hold at them one end and dip the other end into the chocolate fondue without your fingers getting inside the pot .
• Crisp lace cookies, preferably rolled up around a wooden spoon handle while hot. Try one of these delicious recipes:
  Swedish Oatmeal Lace Cookies
  Aunt Gail's Oatmeal Lace Cookies
  Lace Cookies with Orange Mascarpone Filling and Raspberries (skip the filling)
  Magnolia Lace Trumpets from Paula Deen (skip the filling when making these as fondue dippers)
  Tip: When making any lace cookie recipe, make sure to leave LOTS of room between the mounds of cookie batter, since this type of cookie spreads a lot during baking; it's easy to end up with a single, huge cookie that covers then entire cookie sheet! Also, although many recipes tell you to cover the cookie sheets with greased aluminum foil, I find that using greased baking parchment works better.
• Chewy coconut or almond macaroons Dip them frozen or at room temperature for a luscious treat!
• Pretzel rods Salty pretzels and sweet, dark chocolate are a match made in heaven! Pretzel rods sturdy enough so they won't break and long enough to be dipped into the warm chocolate fondue without falling into the pot (or having anyone's fingers inside the it).

Fun Fondue Customs and Traditions

Photo credit: Satanoid [CC-BY-2.0], via Flickr

Fondues by nature are meant to be enjoyed with others, and over the years many different traditions and variations have developed to enhance the inherent fun of sharing a fondue meal with friends. Following are some of the oldest or most popular traditions. Pick the ones you like best and ignore the rest. Several of these traditions are gender-specific and rather outdated (even sexist) by today's standards, so feel free to adapt them any way you please, or invent some fun, new fondue party "traditions" of your own.

• Tradition #1: If someone drops a dipping tidbit into the fondue pot, he or she has to buy a round of drinks for the table.
• Tradition #2: If a woman drops a dipping tidbit into the fondue pot, she has to kiss the man (or men) sitting next to her.
• Tradition #3: If a woman drops a dipping tidbit into the fondue pot, she must kiss every man at the table.
• Tradition #4: if a man drops a dipping tidbit into the fondue pot, he must give the host or hostess a bottle of wine.
• Tradition #5: If a man loses his tidbit in the fondue pot, he must buy a bottle of wine for the table.
• Tradition #6: The first person to lose a second tidbit in the pot has to host the next fondue party.

Fondue Etiquette - Do's and Don'ts

Avoid making these fondue faux pas!

• Spear each dipping tidbit securely with your fondue fork. Spear a chunk of fruit, cube of cake, etc. with the tip of your fondue fork and push the tidbit far enough onto the tines so that the little fins on the ends pierce all the way through the food. This will help prevent your tasty morsel from falling off the fork and into the fondue (or onto the table).
  
  
• Keep track of your fondue fork. Most fondue forks are color coded at the tips of the handles. Before you dip, check your fork to see which color is on the handle tip. That way, if you and someone else accidentally drop your forks in the pot, it will be easy to identify which fork belongs to whom.
  
  
• Dip but don't drip. These tips will help you avoid the dreaded drip: Dip your speared tidbit it into the fondue to coat it with the warm chocolate, then lift it just above the surface of the fondue but not all the way out of the pot and rest the elongated neck of the fork on the edge of the pot for a few seconds to let the excess fondue drip back into the pot. Then rotate the fork slowly as you lift your dipped tidbit out of the pot and onto your plate. If you're still having trouble with drips, you may bring your plate next to the fondue pot and keep it under the tip of your fork as you bring the morsel back to your place.)
  
  
• Transfer dipped tidbits onto your plate and spear them with a regular fork before nibbling on them. Generally it's considered good manners to transfer your dipped tidbit from your fondue fork to your plate and then eat it with a dinner or dessert fork, so that the fork that goes into the fondue never is near your mouth. However, some people are comfortable having everyone use the same fondue forks for both dipping and eating. In this situation, etiquette dictates that each person must remove the tidbit from the fondue fork without allowing his or her tongue, lips or teeth to touch the fork. I recommend checking in advance with your guests to find out how they feel about transferring dipped tidbits from the dipping fork to an eating fork vs. using the same fork for both dipping and nibbling.
  
  
• Don't double-dip! Dipping a morsel into the pot again after you have bitten into it is considered a serious faux pas (not to mention unhygienic). So when you dip your tidbit into the fondue, make sure to coat the entire piece with as much of the fondue as you will want.
  
  
• Dip tidbits into the fondue with a fondue fork rather than fingers. Many people consider dipping food into the fondue with your fingers to be unsanitary and rude. (It also can result in burned fingers.) The only exception is when you are dipping items that cannot be speared with a fondue fork (such as rolled, crisp wafer cookies), in which case only the tip should be dipped into the fondue so that your fingertips don't come near the chocolate. You may want to check with your guests to see how they feel about this issue before serving them dippers that can't be speared with a fondue fork.