If you have never made a fondue, now is the perfect time to learn how!
There are basically three traditional varieties of fondue: cheese, meat, and chocolate.
This post will focus on how to make chocolate fondue.

You may think you need to own a special fondue pot, but while it’s fun to have one, it’s not absolutely necessary.
A dedicated fondue pot is really just a warming dish on a stand, with a candle underneath the pot to keep what’s in it warm.

Without a candle, a regular bowl should stay warm for about 20 minutes.

The “special” equipment usually also includes long forks for dipping the fruit into the chocolate, but you can substitute regular forks, bamboo skewers or even long toothpicks.

For this chocolate fondue recipe you will need:

• 6 ounces of fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (no more than 64% cacao if marked)
• ½ cup of heavy cream
• 2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 2 Tablespoons of Cognac or other brandy

You will also need lots of “goodies” to dip into the chocolate. Choose any of your favorite fruits. Just be sure to cut them up into bite size pieces. Some favorites of mine are; strawberries, raspberries, pineapple (fresh or canned), grapes, bananas, and dried apricots. You can also try pound cake cut into chunks, shortbread cookies, and ruffled potato chips! Chocolate coated potato chips are a real surprise dunker! Everyone is going to love the sweet and salty combination.

You can get all the “dunking bits” prepared in advanced and put on a serving dish. (Keep the cut fruit in the refrigerator, covered, until you are ready to serve the fondue.)

Put the cream, butter and Cognac in a small sauce pan.

Bring everything to a simmer over medium heat. While that is coming to a simmer, chop the chocolate into really tiny pieces.

(For various ways of breaking up the chocolate, see my post on Chocolate Fudge.)

Remove the pan from the heat when everything has begun to simmer, and add the chocolate.

Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the fondue pot (or serving bowl).

If you leave chocolate fondue over the candle for any length of time, stir it occasionally to avoid scorching.

(For chocolate lovers, watch out for my “Strawberries dipped in chocolate” post coming up next week!)

Cheers!

I'd also like to send out a special welcome to new visitor arriving from February's Sweet Love Monthly Mingle. Please make yourself at home and join in the comments. I hope you'll consider subscribing to the startcooking.com blog feed or signing up to get startcooking.com by email — and don't miss out on the startcooking.com videocast in iTunes.

You can view and print this recipe here.

If you are new to startcooking, or are a regular visitor here, please consider subscribing for free.