Delicious and simple-to-make chocolate fondue with lots of fun dipping ideas!
The Best Chocolate Fondue
One of my mom’s go-to desserts growing up was chocolate fondue. With a family as large as ours (9 total!), fondue was an easy treat that brought the whole family together. That, and my mom, was a self proclaimed chocolate addict. 🙂
Although my mom has always been a bit of a minimalist in the kitchen (very few gadgets/cookware), the one exception to that rule is her big fondue fountain. So when my boys had a night over with their grandparents and the fountain came out, they immediately fell in love with it. Once they came home they both kept asking incessantly that we get a chocolate fountain like their Grandma has.
While we don’t have fancy dipping tools or a cool 3-tiered fondue fountain, I have been able to please the boys with a simpler chocolate fondue and it’s now becoming a fun tradition in our home. It’s fun to take a longer time to eat a dessert and talk/laugh through the process of dipping and sampling. It’s also a little very messy in my home, but you win some and you lose some I suppose.
Speaking from experience, the recipe for this fondue is definitely kid-approved. Most fondue recipes use a lot of bittersweet and dark chocolate which I do love, but the kids? Not so much. This recipe is a mixture of semi-sweet and milk chocolate. It IS sweet, but not sickly so.
And the great news is, if you aren’t serving this to kids and like a darker chocolate fondue mixture, the quantities in this recipe will work with whatever chocolate you decide to use! I like using two varieties of chocolate as it yields a richer and deeper final flavor.
Quick Tips
- Use REAL, high quality chocolate bars. Simply put, the better the chocolate you use, the better your fondue will end up. Unfortunately chocolate chips do not work great in fondue — the flavor isn’t quite right and they harden a lot quicker. Chocolate chips aren’t pure chocolate either, and that’s essential for a good fondue.
- Make sure the fondue fountain, and any other dishes the chocolate comes in contact with are completely dry and free of any water. Water will cause the chocolate to seize and ruin the fondue.
- Experiment! You can add a lot of fun variety to a fondue by experimenting with new chocolate flavors and types.
Favorite Things To Dip In Fondue
A better question, what can you NOT dip in chocolate fondue? 🙂 I’m of the opinion that everything tastes better with chocolate on it, so get creative here! Here are some of our favorites:
- Fresh fruit: strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, bananas
- Store–bought cookies: Oreos, nutter butters, pirouettes (my favorite!), Milanos, girl scout cookies
- Homemade cookies: these toffee pecan cookies are our favorite!
- Other treats: poundcake (store-bought or homemade), Rice Krispies treats (our favorite recipe here; just leave off the white chocolate and sprinkles), brownie bites, large marshmallows
More Dessert Recipes:
Easy Chocolate Fondue
Ingredients
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 4 ounces milk chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 1/2- 3/4 cup whole milk (depending on thickness preference, I use 1/2 cup)
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, optional (see note)
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- Flaky sea salt, for topping, optional
Dipping Ideas
- Fresh fruit: such as bananas, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, clementines, etc.
- Cookies: oreos, piroette cookies, milanos,
Instructions
- Start by preparing all of the ingredients/treats you will be dipping in the fondue. The preparation of the fondue goes quickly so you want to have all the treats and skewers (if using) ready!
- To make the fondue, in a small bowl, combine the chocolate, 1/2 cup milk or cream, and butter* and melt gently in a barely simmering water bath or microwave on Medium (50 percent) power for about 2 minutes.
- Stir until completely smooth.
- Add more milk if desired. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt.
- Serve this warm fondue immediately with whatever you've chosen to serve it with 🙂
- If the fondue gets too thick (or starts to harden), reheat in the microwave in bursts of 15 seconds stirring in between each burst for 10 seconds until melted and smooth again.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hey! It’s super delicious, I have a sweet tooth and I can’t stop drooling over this.
So glad you are loving this Chocolate Fondue. Thanks so much for sharing Martha! 🙂
Delicious and ridiculously easy! I used 8 oz. (two 4 oz bars) Baker’s semisweet chocolate and 2 oz. of a Hershey’s Symphony milk chocolate bar- delish! We had this for our prom-at-home (my high school senior’s idea, since her prom was canceled due to the quarantine). My favorite things to dip were bananas, strawberries, and homemade coconut macaroons. First time visiting your blog- thanks:)
I’m so glad you loved this chocolate fondue! I absolutely love that you guys put on your own prom at home! How fun and sweet! Thanks so much for your comment! 🙂
Simple recipe and easy to make. we made it and it was successful. We are going to do it again for sure!!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe 🙂
So I always hate those recipes reviews where they tell you that they changed almost every single thing about the recipe, but it was delicious lol. I’m afraid I might be doing that myself. Sorry in advance.
So every Easter season, my best friend gifts me a chocolate bunny, and I gift her Peeps in return. This year it happened to be by mail.
I sought out a creative way to use a whole 10 solid ounces of milk chocolate and stumbled upon this here recipe. I didn’t have heavy cream, but I did have Starbucks Caramel Macchiato Creamer. So I substituted 1:1 creamer for cream.
It turned out divine! *insert rapturous music*
Thank you for the recipe that created the foundation of this creation that I am currently eating with a spoon! 😀
Haha, I loved this comment! So glad you enjoyed this recipe and was able to make it work with what you had. It sounds so amazing! Thanks Ashley! 🙂
will this work with white chocolate? can you add coco powder to make it a more bitter chocolate dip? (=0w0=))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
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I wouldn’t recommend that for this recipe
I wanted to try a chocolate peanut butter fondue. How much peanut butter do you think I should add? Would it replace the butter?
Hey Cathy, unfortunately I haven’t tried that yet so I’m not sure how it would work. I think it would work, but make for a very thick dip; you’d likely need to thin it more with other ingredients. If you do give it a try will you let me know how it turns out? Thanks for your comment! 🙂
When you say 8-12 servings, how big are you measuring 1 serving? 1/4 cup?
Hello CHELSEA
Very detailed recipe article, Now I’m ready to make this mouth-watering recipe. I’m also trying your waffle cake recipe it is also a wonderful recipe. Thanks for sharing
Delicious and easy.
So glad you enjoyed 🙂
Hola! When you say “water bath”…can you explain? Making con la familia for Valentines. Thanks much!
What she means is to put water in a small pot, let it simmer (barely) and then put a separate, smaller pot in the water with the chocolate inside the smaller pot. Hope this helps 🙂
I think it means that you take a big bowl and fill it with hot water and fill a smaller bowl with chocolate and put it on the bigger bowl.
use a double boiler – it works great for this