Do you need a great chocolate fondue recipe? Fondue is a type of communal dining experience with Swiss origins that became popular in the United States in the 1970s.

The concept is simple. A small pot holds the cheese or chocolate. The fondue pot sits on a small stand with a heating element underneath it, often a sterno. There are items to dip into the pot using special fondue forks. Fondue means “to melt” in French, and that’s exactly what happens to the cheese and chocolate in the fondue pot.http://www.fonduebits.com/index.html Another type of fondue is a meat fondue. For this dinner, hot oil or boullion is put in the fondue pot and raw meat or fish is left in the oil or boullion to cook.

Many people love chocolate dipped desserts but rarely make it for themselves. This dessert is easy to prepare and only requires one specialty item, a fondue pot. Fondue sets can be bought almost anywhere that kitchen supplies are sold. A fondue set has a ceramic pot, a stand, and fondue forks. The forks are color coded so that guests know which fork belongs to them.

You can learn how to make chocolate fondue by following a few simple steps.

It’s best to start a chocolate fondue by preparing the items that you will dip into the chocolate. You want these ready ahead of time because after you start the chocolate melting, you don’t want to step away from it to prepare these items. Chocolate can be fickle.

There is no end to what you can use to dip into chocolate. You should use your own tastes and those of your guests to make up the plate. Some typical food to dip in chocolate include:

• Strawberries (fresh work best as frozen tend to get mushy as they thaw)
• Bananas
• Tangerines
• Kiwi
• Pound cake (home made or store bought is fine)
• Angel food cake (home made or store bought)
• Pretzels
• Ladyfingers
• Marshmallows
• Cheesecake (the firmer and denser New York style will work better than the lighter airy cheesecake since you do want it to stay on the fork)

It’s nice to have a wide variety of items since you do not know exactly what the tastes of your guests will be. With many items to choose from, you will have a better chance of having at least one or more items that everyone will like. You may want to consider having extra cut as well in case one item is more popular than another. Also, make sure that all the fruit is ripe.

The dippers should be cut into bite size pieces large enough to fit on the fork but not so large that a guest would not be able to eat it in one bite. The flip side is that you do not want to make the pieces too small or they may fall off the fondue fork.

The chocolate fondue is the most important part of the dessert. It is fairly easy to make. There are a few different ways to make this dessert, but this recipe will stay very simple. You will need three items:

1. 3/4 cup of heavy cream
2. 12 ounces of chocolate (chopped up bar or use semi-sweet chocolate chips)
3. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon of a liqueur

In a saucepan, heat the heavy cream slowly until it begins to simmer. You don’t want to boil it or you will risk scalding the milk. After that is heated, you can lower the heat and put in the chocolate. The lower heat and residual heat of the milk will melt the chocolate. You can use a whisk or spatula to stir the chocolate until it is melted. Once melted, you can add your vanilla or liqueur, and again whisk it until all the chocolate has melted and it is smooth.

After the chocolate fondue is done, you can then transfer it to your fondue pot and serve with the fruit, cake, cookies and whatever else you have cut up to dip into the chocolate.

• Note: It is not necessary to use fancy or expensive fondue chocolate for this recipe. Any chocolate will do. If you prefer white or dark chocolate, you can use that as well.

Because all people at the table share in the chocolate in the fondue pot, it’s usually best to observe some common rules of communal eating etiquette. http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Entertaining-Holidays-651/fondue.aspx http://www.fonduebits.com/fondue-etiquette.html

1. Don’t eat all of one kind of food. It’s polite to sample the variety and leave some for others.
2. Once you have the food on the fondue fork, dip it in the chocolate and swirl it around. This allows a nice coating on the fruit, cake, or cookie.
3. When lifting the fork, allow the excess to fall back in the pot. This allows a brief cooling off period since the chocolate will get hotter the longer it sits.
4. When eating the food, try not to let any part of the fondue fork touch your lips or tongue since the fork has to go back into the communal food pot.
5. An alternative to eating directly off your fondue fork is to use another dinner fork to put the food item in a dish first and then eat it.
6. No double dipping. That’s just unsanitary.
7. Don’t put your fingers in the pot. That’s also unsanitary.