Dip your favorite treats into a velvety pool of homemade chocolate fondue! Whether you’re planning a romantic Valentine’s Day date night or hosting a lively New Year’s Eve gathering with friends, this interactive dessert is sure to be the star of the show. Easily made with just a handful of readily available ingredients, you can create a decadently fudgy delight that will even the biggest chocolate lovers’ sweet tooth.
The fondue can be served with any number of delicious dippers. From succulent strawberries to fluffy marshmallows, crispy pretzels to buttery cookies, you can customize your fondue experience to suit any palate. For more easy chocolate desserts, check out my chocolate Bundt cake, homemade chocolate pudding, and chocolate lasagna recipe next!
What You Need To Make This Recipe
Heavy cream — heavy cream promises the dreamiest fondue with its high milkfat content. You can use regular whipping cream if needed.
Whole milk — full-fat dairy is the secret to the creamiest fondue.
Semisweet chocolate — I find that the best chocolate to please a crowd is semisweet, high quality chocolate (preferably 55-60% cocoa solids). It hits the balance between the sweet and bitter flavors, but you can use another type of chocolate, such as milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or bittersweet chocolate, to suit your taste.
Pinch of salt — a touch of salt helps to coax out the subtler notes in the chocolate and reduce any bitterness in flavor.
Vanilla extract — natural vanilla enhances the chocolate flavor. Feel free to swap in an equal amount of vanilla paste.
Assorted dippers — here’s where you can let your creativity run wild. My favorite chocolate fondue dippers are strawberries, sliced bananas, cake cubes, cookies, pretzels, and marshmallows.
How To Make Chocolate Fondue
1. Add cream to a small saucepan.
2. Add milk to the saucepan with the cream and warm over medium heat until very steamy and small bubbles form around the edge. Remove from the heat.
3. Add the chocolate and salt and stir until smooth.
4. Stir in the vanilla. Transfer the melted chocolate to a fondue pot or warmer, or serve directly from the saucepan along with your favorite dippers. Refrigerate any leftover fondue and reheat it over low heat to use again.
Pro Tips For Making This Recipe
- Chocolate choices. Opt for high-quality bars of chocolate over chocolate chips for the perfect chocolate fondue texture. The chips are formulated to hold their shape during baking, which means they don’t melt quite as well as bar chocolate.
- Keeping it warm. If you don’t have an electric fondue pot, you can use a mini slow cooker to keep it warm and dippable. You can also use a tea light placed underneath the serving bowl, place the fondue in the top of a double boiler with warm water underneath, or try using a food warmer!
- Storage & reheating. Any leftovers will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. To serve, simply warm over gentle heat until melty and delicious.
Frequently Asked Questions
My chocolate fondue recipe yields a hefty 8 servings, so one batch should be more than enough for a small date night or group gathering. That said, you can easily halve or double the recipe to adjust as needed!
If you’re wondering what to dip into the chocolate, choose anything you like to eat with chocolate! Chocolate plays well with all kinds of flavors. Some of my favorites are fresh fruit (berries and bananas especially!), salty snacks (pretzel bites, crunchy pretzel twists, and plain potato chips), chewy marshmallows, cubes of pound cake, angel food cake, or banana bread, and crunchy biscotti. Just keep in mind your choice of dippers; items that need to be dipped with fondue forks should be sturdy enough to stay on the fork and not break apart in the chocolate.
Any high-quality bar chocolate is ideal. I tend to prefer semi-sweet chocolate, but you can use white, milk, or bittersweet, or any combination you like. If you opt for flavored chocolate, I suggest avoiding any bars that have chunky inclusions. (A chili-flavored chocolate bar would be okay, but one with chopped nuts isn’t ideal.)
Yes! Just remember to avoid any cross-contamination with other ingredients if you’re serving it with gluten-containing dippers. If you have a mixed crown, make a fondue pot to dip exclusively with gluten-free items, as cross-contamination can happen in the fondue pot.
If you love this recipe try these out!
If you’ve tried this Chocolate Fondue recipe, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
Chocolate Fondue
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Fondue pot or warmer
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup heavy cream (160ml)
- ¼ cup whole milk (60ml)
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate finely chopped (338g)
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Assorted dippers: strawberries, bananas, cake cubes, cookies, pretzels, marshmallows, etc.
Instructions
- Combine the cream and milk in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat until very steamy and small bubbles form around the edge. Remove from the heat.
- Add the chocolate and salt and stir until smooth. Stir in the vanilla.
- Transfer the chocolate mixture to a fondue pot or warmer, or serve directly from the saucepan along with your favorite dippers. Refrigerate any leftover fondue and reheat it over low heat to use again.
Notes
- Chocolate choices. Opt for high-quality bars of chocolate over chocolate chips for the perfect chocolate fondue texture. The chips are formulated to hold their shape during baking, which means they don’t melt quite as well as bar chocolate.
- Keeping it warm. If you don’t have an electric fondue pot, you can use a mini slow cooker to keep it warm and dippable. You can also use a tea light placed underneath the serving bowl, place the fondue in the top of a double boiler with warm water underneath, or try using a food warmer!
- Storage & reheating. Any leftovers will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. To serve, simply warm over gentle heat until melty and delicious.
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