Sunday, January 29, 2023

Chocolate Fondue Origin #recipe Maya Corrigan

chocolate fondue with fruit and cookies for dipping in it
Photo by Ernesto Pasini, Pixabay License

Cold weather and Valentine's Day remind me of fondue. It conjures images of friendly gatherings around a fireplace, everyone dipping crusty bread in melted cheese, and of chocolate fountains at weddings.

Cheese fondue began life as peasant food in Switzerland in the 19th century, but the chocolate version has a more recent vintage. It originated in the 1960s at a press conference in Manhattan. The owner of the Chalet Suisse restaurant, which served cheese and meat fondue, created the dessert fondue at the request of the Swiss Toblerone chocolate company. 

Toblerone wanted to make inroads in the American market dominated by Hershey. Chocolate fondue created such a buzz that people began going to Chalet Suisse for the dessert alone. Then Toblerone started selling fondue kits so people could make the treat at home...and buy more of the triangular bars shaped like an Alpine peak. When I got married, a fondue pot was a common wedding shower gift. I received two of them and used them, even lending them to friends who threw an all-fondue dinner party. 

After the fondue fad subsided, I took the pots to a thrift shop, never dreaming I'd ever use one again. Fast forward to 2015 when I was writing Final Fondue. Of course I needed to include fondue recipes in the book and had to test them first. So I bought a second-hand fondue pot on ebay.   

Today I’m sharing a recipe for the first chocolate fondue in recorded history, which used Toblerone, milk chocolate bars containing nuts and honey. Chocolate of any kind plus cream is all you need to make fondue but most recipes include at least one more ingredient to give the dessert a unique flavor. The first fondue called for kirsch, a brandy made from sour cherries, but any fruit brandy or nonalcoholic flavoring would also work. I used an orange liqueur. 

Ingredients

½ cup heavy cream
3 3.5-ounce Toblerone bars, chopped into small pieces
2 Tbsp of kirsch, cognac, or other fruit brandy (optional)




Tradition Method of Making Chocolate Fondue

Heat the cream until hot in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Remove the cream from the heat, add the chocolate, and let it stand 3 minutes. Stir when the chocolate is melted. Thin the mixture slightly with liqueur, whisking it into the chocolate.

Microwave Method

Mix the cream and the chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat the mixture at half-power for 2 minutes, stopping the microwave every 30 seconds to stir the mixture until it is all melted. Then whisk in the liqueur.

Pour the chocolate into a small fondue pot on a stand over a candle. Serve with your choice of fresh fruit and angel food or pound cake. 

Reheat leftover fondue in a heavy pan over medium heat, stirring until warm enough or reheat in the microwave at half-power, stirring every 30 seconds until it is warm enough.

Serves 4 - 6

This simple dessert is a big hit with kids. My grandsons love it. 







Do you remember the fondue craze? Have you ever made or eaten fondue? 
If so, do you prefer cheese or chocolate fondue?


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Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manger Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Maya lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Before writing crime fiction, she taught American literature, writing, and detective fiction at Northern Virginia Community College and Georgetown University. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords.




Visit a mystery fan fest in the latest Five-Ingredient Mystery


Val and Granddad attend a mystery fan fest that features a bake-off between contestants playing the roles of cooks to fictional sleuths. As Nero Wolfe’s gourmet chef, Granddad competes against Sherlock Holmes's landlady Mrs. Hudson, played by Cynthia Sweet. Granddad blames her for ripping off the five-ingredient theme of his Codger Cook newspaper column to use in her own recipe column and cookbook. When she’s found dead in her hotel room with a whistling teakettle next to her, he and Val sort through the festival-goers to find the one with the biggest beef against Ms. Not-So-Sweet.


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20 comments:

  1. Now you've gone and given me a craving!

    One of my favorite all time fondue events was a conference Hubby and I attended in connection to his job. They had both white and chocolate fondues going as well as two with cheese. Loved them both, but definitely partial to the chocolate ones with strawberries and bananas. To me the cheese one is more like a main course and the chocolate as dessert. But why not start off with any meal with dessert. :)
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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    1. Good idea, Kay. Why save the best for last? Thanks for commenting.

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  2. I remember having a work Christmas party at The Melting Pot, a fondue only restaurant. We loved it. I love the cheese fondue course but the chocolate fondue is so much fun.

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    1. My book launch party for FINAL FONDUE was at the Melting Pot and so was my 50th anniversary party! The restaurant did a terrific job for both events. Thanks for your comment, April.

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  3. I am a fan of fondue, cheese, chocolate and I have even made a caramel version to dip apples and ginger cookies during a fall event. Reading Fatal Fondue right now, so this is the perfect recipe! Thanks!

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  4. Sounds yummy, MaryAnn!

    My kids always wanted to go to The Melting Pot for special occasions for a couple of years. It's an all-fondue restaurant, with a heat source in the middle of each table where you cook your own food: chunks of various proteins, vegetables, etc, and dip them in melted cheese. The last course is a chocolate fondue with chunks of fruit and cake for dipping.

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    1. There's a Melting Pot restaurant with a private party room a mile away from my house. My book launch party for FINAL FONDUE was there, and my kids threw us a 50th anniversary party at the Melting Pot. It was possibly the only place where my grandsons, 7 and 10 years old, would have sat at a table for an entire 3-course meal. It was such fun for them to cook their own food. hanks for your comment, Karen.

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  5. We got at least one fondue pot as a wedding gift 50+ years ago. Never used it. Or the pewter liqueur "glasses" (I want to see the colors, not drink from a miniature bowling tophy!). Or the large Revereware bowl.
    "or rehear in the microwave " I'm having fun imagining what and how a microwave hears.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Libby. I have pewter wineglasses that I also never use. It's the cook who rehears the microwave heating the chocolate again. ;-)

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  6. Naturally, we had our plenty of fondue on our trip to Switzerland last fall, both cheese and chocolate. Yummy good fun!

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    1. Thanks for commenting, Leslie. Fondue is fun food.

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  7. My family used to have fondues on New Years. The kids loved it. We would have cheese fondue and also do an oil and butter fondue with shrimp, chicken and small cuts if beef and follow with chocolate fondue.
    Lots of fun!!

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Linda. My German conversation instructor said that fondue for New Years is a tradition in Germany too.

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  8. Yep, got a fondue pot for a wedding gift. It was the 70s.

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  9. My mom and dad were big into fondue in the 60s, but not cheese or chocolate. We'd have two fondu pots of bubbling oil on the table, spear bits of meat on the forks, deep fry them, then dip them in various sauces. Seems wildly dangerous in retrospect. We never had an accident, though. Good memories!

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    1. I made cheese and chocolate fondue, but I've always avoided a pot of hot oil. Being a bit of a klutz, I don't deep fry anything.

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  10. Fun for Valentine's Day - chocolate dipped strawberries 🍓

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