Easy Chocolate Fondue Recipe

An easy chocolate fondue recipe that you can quickly put together for a last-minute tabletop cooking party

This easy chocolate fondue recipe will have your friends and family so excited that you won’t want to tell them it only took you ten minutes to make with ingredients you [probably] already had in your pantry. Also, you can make this chocolate fondue without alcohol, so it's perfect for a kids party, a baby shower, or when you're between bottles of brandy.

This is based on Hershey’s Chocolate Lover’s Fondue recipe, but any regular bag of chocolate chips will do. I used Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate chips because I like dark chocolate, but feel free to experiment. (Next time, I might try the Reese's peanut butter chips that caught my eye...)

For the fondue dippers, I used pound cake, fresh strawberries, and canned pineapples (the pineapples canned in juice, not in syrup). Fresh pineapples would have been great, but they are very expensive where I live and not necessarily of very good quality. You can also use banana slices, little mandarin pieces, seedless grapes, cherries, ladyfingers, pretzels, or whatever else think would taste better covered in melted chocolate. Really just let your imagination run free!

Pro-tip: Use a ceramic pot to serve chocolate fondue. Melt and mix the ingredients on the stove over low heat or in the microwave before you pour it into your ceramic pot heated by a tea light. The tea light won’t really get hot enough to melt all the chocolate, but it will keep the chocolate warm while you eat it. But extinguish the tea light when you're about done eating, or that little flame might also burn the chocolate.

I melted the chocolate in a double boiler because I have one, but if you don’t, this easy chocolate fondue recipe can be prepared in the microwave. I recommend putting all the chocolate chips, sugar, and half and half in a large bowl and microwaving it for thirty seconds. Stir and continue microwaving and stirring in thirty-second increments until it’s nice and silky.

Chocolate chips melting in a double boiler for easy chocolate fondue

Essentials for your easy chocolate fondue recipe

Visit The Tabletop Tool Shop or The Tabletop Food Shop for everything and anything you might need.

Word of caution: while you should be careful to avoid overheating and scalding your chocolate fondue, melted chocolate is still hot and sticky and liable to burn overeager mouths (think of the children!). Kindly remind your guests to pause for just a moment before sticking big ol’ chocolate-covered strawberries in their mouths!

Ingredients:

1 bag (2 cups) of your favorite chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup half and half

Suggestions for easy chocolate fondue dippers:

cold pound cake cubes
banana chunks
pretzel rods
pineapple chunks (canned in water is fine)
mandarin pieces
strawberries
ladyfingers
seedless grapes
pitted cherries
...and anything else you like!

Stovetop directions:

Prepare your favorite chocolate fondue dippers and lay them out on the table for you and your guests. Make sure your guests don’t eat them all before the fondue is ready!
Pour the sugar, half and half, and chocolate chips into a saucepan, or a double boiler* if you have one. Melt the chocolate on the stove over low heat, stirring as needed.
Spoon the chocolate fondue into a ceramic fondue pot. After you have it set up on the table, light the tea candle underneath it.
Enjoy your easy chocolate fondue with friends and family!

*To melt chocolate in a double boiler, fill the base saucepan with just enough water to cover the bottom without quite touching the double boiler insert. Heat the water to simmering, but not boiling. Put the double boiler insert in the saucepan and let the hot steam warm it up before you add your chocolate bits. A double boiler gently and evenly warms up the chocolate without scalding it, but you don’t really need one for an easy chocolate fondue recipe like this.

Microwave directions:

Prepare your favorite chocolate fondue dippers and lay them out on the table for you and your guests. Warn them not to eat all the pound cake or strawberries before the fondue is ready!
Pour the sugar, half and half, and chocolate chips into a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave the mixture for the thirty seconds, then remove it and stir. Continue alternately microwaving it in thirty-second increments and stirring until the chocolate chips have all melted.
Spoon the delicious chocolate fondue in your ceramic fondue pot. Place it on the table and light the tea light once you’re all settled.
Enjoy that easy chocolate fondue!

If you've tried any other easy chocolate fondue recipes, tell us about it!