Amber's Chocolate Fondue Parties

by Kristyne McDaniel

My daughter, Amber, has decided that chocolate fondue is the height of sophistication. She is interested in anything from the 1960s. I think it is funny when she asks me questions about the 1960s, like I would know. I wasn’t born until 1969. My parents didn’t have chic fondue parties with friends.

Amber found a website that had different recipes for chocolate fondue. She and her friends talked me into letting them try a new one every Friday until they had tried them all. They were going to try to rate each one and decide which one was their favorite. I thought that it sounded like a lot of fun. I can think of worse things for a Friday night than chocolate fondue with friends.

I almost re-thought my original excitement when I saw which recipe for chocolate fondue that Amber had picked to try the first night. She picked dairy-free organic chocolate sauce. This did not sound very delicious to me. The ingredients were low-fat organic vanilla soy milk, sucanet sugar, organic unsweetened cocoa powder and arrowroot.

I asked Amber why she had chosen this dairy-free recipe for chocolate fondue and she said that one of her friends had a visiting cousin that was a vegan. She had decided, with her friends, that they wanted to include this cousin and they didn’t mind tasting and reviewing the recipe. She said it would be fun if it was good, but it would be hilarious if it was inedible.

I didn’t taste the non-dairy chocolate fondue. I waited until the next Friday night when Amber and her friends made Chocolate Fondue a la Chalet Suisse. The recipe sounded luxurious and the ingredients looked decadent. The recipe called for Toblerone chocolate bars, heavy cream and Cointreau. I could hardly wait to try this fondue.

The a la Chalet Suisse Chocolate Fondue was wonderful. I helped the girls get all of the dipping items ready in the kitchen. We cut two angel food cakes into chunks, we sectioned tangerines and we sliced strawberries. The food looked so pretty before we all started eating. I wish that someone had been taking pictures.

There have been so many chocolate fondue parties this year at our house. I have enjoyed every one of them. My favorite one has to be the first one, though. It was just so nice to see Amber and all of her friends laughing and having so much fun cooking together. I don’t think I’d had a kitchen full of girls cooking since Amber was ten. It was nice.