Whether an intimate night at home just you two or a girls night in, fondue is the perfect way to host a fun and casual evening and bring people together. Is there really a better way to enjoy Valentine’s Day than indulging in chocolate?! Okay, well I can think of a few things, but thats for a whole other blog post. Ha!

The beauty of fondue is that it’s so simple and quick to make, you can spend more time enjoying your company. The fun part is choosing food (we’ll call them dippers) to dip into the chocolate that your guests will love. Since I don’t eat gluten and try to stay away from dairy as much as possible, I was able to create a delicious platter filled with an assortment of fruits and gluten free sweets, including a gluten free, dairy free and egg free cake I made from a box mix by Cherrybrook Kitchen.

I placed my fondue pot on a pretty pink cake stand and piled the sweet treats all around. I added fresh flowers because I just love to make everything look even more pretty. No need to, but does make for a beautiful presentation. Just be sure to tell your guests the flowers are not edible! Last thing you need is someone dipping a pink rose in the chocolate. Oy!

I absolutely love the adorable pink half circle paper plates and pretty white scallop paper napkins I just bought from Sugar and Cloth’s new shop! You can find the collection here on Amazon.

Some fun dippers can be rice krispies treats, pretzels, munchkin donuts, mini cupcakes, Oreo cookies (I used the delicious gluten free brand Glutino) banana bread, grapes, mandarin slices, pears, anything really. Because chocolate! But including strawberries, bananas and marshmallows is non negotiable (even though I completely forgot to add the bananas after I sliced them)

Dippers I chose:

 

Proper fondue etiquette is that the fondue fork be used to dip the food into the pot only once and placed back on your plate, without eating from fondue fork. Which means you should provide additional forks to eat from. So unless it’s a romantic night in where no rules apply, no double dipping or eating from fondue forks!

There are an array of options when deciding on a fondue pot, depending on what you’ll be making. Both cheese and chocolate fondue can be used with an electric model or a traditional flame heated model with a tea light candle beneath pot. Keep in mind, you don’t need a fondue pot to make this chocolate fondue recipe. You can easily melt the chocolate on the stovetop (which is what I did) or microwave and transfer it to a serving pot, and just reheat it when needed.

However, an electric fondue set would be needed to handle high heat when cooking foods like meat with oil. Here is a great site to check out a variety of fondue pots.

I wanted a small fondue pot that would continuously keep the chocolate warm. Ι purchased one from Amazon and absolutely love it! Check it out here.

Fun fact: Chocolate fondue was invented here in NYC in the early 1960s by both a NY PR agent Beverly Allen and restaurateur and chef Konrad Egli of Chalet Suisse, to promote the launch of the Swiss chocolate Toblerone in the USA. Pretty neat. Yup, I just said neat.

 

This dark chocolate recipe is gluten free and dairy free and most importantly so easy to make!

Dairy Free + Gluten Free Dark Chocolate Fondue

What you’ll need:

  • 1 (14 oz) can of coconut cream (not canned milk)
  • 1 (20 oz) bag dairy free and gluten free semi-sweet dark chocolate chips (I love Enjoy Life dairy free & gluten free chocolate)
  • Fondue pot or ceramic bowl
  • Fondue forks or skewers
Directions:
  1. In a medium saucepan, heat coconut cream over low heat until melted.
  2. Add dark chocolate chips and stir until chocolate is fully melted (Make sure to keep heat low so it doesn’t come to a boil)
  3. Transfer to ceramic fondue pot and place on metal warming stand.
  4. Serve with dippers.
Makes about 4 cups

Serves 4 to 6

*Since the fresh made chocolate stays pretty hot for a bit, I don’t light the candle until after about 15 min. But if you prefer, you can light it right away. Keep in mind that once candle is lit, you’ll have to stir the chocolate every so often, to prevent it from burning on bottom of pot.

*You can store any leftover chocolate (that wasn’t used of course) in an air tight container for up to three days in the refrigerator. Just reheat it back on stove top again.

To set the ambiance for a romantic date night, light some candles, sprinkle rose petals everywhere, put on some John Legend and Sade and be sure to have the bubbly chilling. Sexy couples games optional.

With love,

Kyranna