Chocolate Fondue!

We had dinner with our good friends, Zack and Mallory. They made a delicious Jamie Oliver stir fry recipe for dinner and we brought dessert :) I was prompted to bring something that wasn't too big or heavy... naturally, that makes me turn to fruit. But then the question is how do I jazz up fruit to make it 'dessert' worthy. Fondue was the perfect answer. It is easy, fun, warm, chocolatey, and goes so well with just about any fruit!
In light of 'lightness' for this dessert, I also used a fat free half & half instead of the heavy cream that is usually called for when melting chocolate for fondue. It worked so well! I will definitely make it like this every time! Why use the heavy fat if it doesn't make a difference?! 
This was a great dessert with friends because it is casual, conversational, and creates such a fun vibe at the table :) Also, a little bit goes a looooong way. This little bit of fondue was enough to dip ALL of the fruit AND we still had a bunch of chocolate fondue left over. I think I will keep this fondue recipe in my back pocket as a quick and easy entertaining tool. 


Recipe: 
8 oz. Fat Free Half & Half
12 oz. Dark Chocolate, chips or chunks
2 lbs Strawberries: washed, dried, and chilled
2 Apples, thinly sliced


If you don't own a double boiler, it is very easy to create one at home. Simply fit a glass bowl over a pot of water on medium-low heat, but be sure that the bottom of the glass bowl is over the water not touching the boiling water.
Then heat the half & half in the glass bowl until it is warm and steamy.

Add in the chocolate chunks and stir until it is completely melted and smooth. 

Then transfer your melted chocolate into a fondue pot and light the heat source below (mine required just a little tea light... I was skeptical as to whether it would be enough, but I was amazed at how well it kept the chocolate hot! Moral of the story- you don't need a big, fancy, or expensive fondue machine to get a great, hot fondue dessert :)

Serve with any dippers that you desire. I served mine with strawberries and apple slices. 

Some other ideas are: pineapple, marshmallows, cherries, pretzels, coconut squares, graham crackers, sliced mango, ...my goodness you can dip just about anything in chocolate!