Ah, my 2nd attempt at cheese fondue. I'm pretty much ready to bath myself in this stuff.
I found a recipe on the 'net, but decided to change things up a bit when I saw the price of Emmentaler that day at the grocery store. What fun is life if you can't make up your own fondue rules, right? Right. So instead of Emmentaler, I used Gouda. While not the easiest cheese to shred, it made the fondue so rich and creamy. This is definitely a keeper.
Three Cheese FondueAdapted from AhLimP's submission on allrecipes.com
1 c. white wine
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. all purpose flour
1 tsp. minced garlic
7(+/-) oz. Gruyere, shredded
7(+/-) oz. extra sharp white cheddar, shredded
7(+/-) oz. gouda, shredded (or chopped as gouda is hard to shred)
Melt the butter on low heat in the fondue pot. Stir in the flour to make a roux. Cook 1 minute, give or take, so the flour taste cooks out. Note: my heat was a little too high at first, so I added the wine after about 30 seconds so the roux wouldn't burn. Add the wine and garlic to the mixture and stir well. Add the cheeses, a handful at a time, and continue to stir to melt everything. Once it's all melted and creamy, start dippin'!
Our favorite dippers include soft pretzels, rye bagels (toasted), blanched cauliflower & broccoli, roasted pearl onions, asparagus, potatoes & cremini mushrooms, and steak.
All gone!I'm linking this post up to this week's Ultimate Recipe Swap over at Life as Mom. Her topic this week is New Year's foods, and while we're having steak this year (a gift from Buppy's dad that we received earlier this week), fondue at home would make a perfect, decadent & delicious meal for New Year's. Something to plan for next year for moi. Enjoy!
Father's Day was a day of laziness, a movie & a nice dinner at home. We had some leftover chocolate fondue I'd made awhile back in the fridge that needed to be used up, and some fresh strawberries too. Hmmm, what could I possibly make with both? *think*think*think* And the winner is . . . chocolate covered strawberries! Who would have ever thought?
I didn't feel like dragging out the fondue pot [we had enough dirty dishes with the rest of the meal!], so I decided to be a renegade and simply heat the chocolate in the glass dish it was stored in. Viola! Instant [almost] success! It didn't take long to melt in the microwave at all, surprisingly.
I really liked the texture of the chocolate more than regular melted chocolate by itself [the fondue had other things added to it when originally made], which made it seem softer and less brittle and breakable. Smooth and creamy baby!
I topped 3 of the strawberries with sprinkles [Buppy believes that sprinkles = happiness] and 3 with leftover crushed Oreo cookies [because those need to be used up too!]. Then I dipped 3 small graham cracker squares in the chocolate to go along with the berries. Six strawberries total, meaning 2 for each of the kids and 2 for Buppy. If you haven't noticed by now, I'm not really into sweets [eating them, that is], so I passed.
I had an emergency phone call from a family member in the middle of dinner that lasted forever, but the kids and Buppy all said they liked my creations. Hopefully they weren't lying. Then again, who wouldn't love 'em? I still have more chocolate to use up, so now I'm on the hunt to figure out what else I want to dip. Banana? Eh, been there, done that. Kiwi? Melon? Fresh mint leaves? Hmmm, I'll work on that. In the mean time, here are what my berries looked like:
A little over a week ago when we had friends over for our monthly dinner, they made the entire [super yummy!] meal with the exception of dessert. Dessert was mine to "bring." Bring is in quotes because I don't actually bring it to their house as it sounds; they made and brought dinner to us so we wouldn't have to get a sitter. This arrangement still allows for us to get together without the added cost for the night. Way cool of them to come to our house every month; we're stuck with dishes, but it's completely worth it! Back to dessert.
I wasn't sure what to make. I love baking and desserts in general, although I rarely eat more than a bite or two. I thought about something healthy, with fruit, but Buppy persuaded me to stick with my original idea --- chocolate fondue. This recipe came from the same tear out that featured the classic cheese fondue we tried a few weeks back. Everyone seemed to enjoy it; I tried it with a pretzel or two and a strawberry. It was fun to sit around and chat while dipping!
Chocolate Fondue
[Grocery store magazine tear-out]
12 oz. dark chocolate – chips or roughly chopped
½ c. heavy cream, plus extra if fondue is too thick
1 Tbsp. Amaretto or other liqueur, optional
Dippers – strawberries, banana, marshmallows, pretzels, etc.
Bring cream to a light simmer over medium heat. Do not let it come to a boil. Add chocolate in small batches, stirring until melted before adding more. When all chocolate is incorporated, add liqueur of choice, if using. Others that would work well include Frangelico, Grand Marnier or brandy.
Be sure to use moderate heat and do not allow chocolate to boil – this type of fondue can burn easily. If fondue becomes too thick, add additional cream one tablespoon at a time, and mix to incorporate.
Server with your choice of dippers; we used the ones listed above.
I think Frangelico would be amazing with this, but we used triple sec as it's what I had on hand. I had Amaretto too, but Buppy was feeling shady about this one as it wasn't a really high quality one and he wasn't super keen on the taste. That, and he loves orange and chocolate together.
Enjoy!
I love fondue, but I don't love paying $90+ for dinner for 2 at restaurants like The Melting Pot. Their full meal [cheese fondue, salad, entree fondue, dessert fondue] is exceptional, but wow, why couldn't I make it at home for a lot less? I'm cheap, what can I say? Oh wait, no, I'm frugal. Eh, call it what you wanna call it, but I figured I could do just as well at home making my fondue from scratch. Besides, I have a brand new electric fondue pot I got for Christmas that needs to be broken in --- yay!
While this was definitely less expensive than going out for dinner, it still wasn't a 'frugal' meal by any stretch of the imagination. Granted we now have one of the key ingredients [kirsch] that alone cost $14.99, so at least we won't have to shell out for that one again for a long, long time. It's a standard sized bottle of cherry flavored brandy and the recipe called for 2 tsp. I better learn to love this stuff. Or plan to make a lot more fondue. Or fuel a space ship.
The cheese itself is pretty costly too, at $16+ for 1 lb. of good quality Swiss. For those of you who keep high quality Swiss on hand, this wouldn't be too costly at all. I, however, am not one of those people. The cheese and kirsch were the 2 big expenses; everything else I pretty much had on hand [not that it required a whole lot more.]
I pulled this recipe out of a monthly handout from a local grocery store [Superfresh? Giant?] and since it was called 'classic cheese fondue', I thought it a good place to start on my fondue journey.
Classic Cheese Fondue
Grocery store magazine tear-out
1 garlic clove, halved
1 c. dry white wine
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
½ lb. Emmenthaler cheese, coarsely grated [2 c.]
½ lb. Gruyere, coarsely grated [2 c.]
2 tsp. kirsch
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Rub the inside of a fondue pot or heavy saucepan with cut side of garlic, and discard. Add wine and bring just to a simmer over moderate heat.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss cheeses with cornstarch. Gradually add cheese to pot, stirring constantly until just melted and creamy [do not let boil]. Bring fondue to a simmer, add kirsch and season to taste with pepper. Cook, stirring, until thickened, 5-8 minutes.
Serve with bread and other accompaniments for dipping.
Buppy and I dipped toasted Italian bread chunks and warmed Lil' Smokies, both of which were really great with the fondue. The original recipe called for salt [to taste] along with the pepper, but the cheeses [in my opinion] made this plenty salty. Almost a little too salty, and I love salt. Which is funny, because I never salted anything when I was younger. I digress. 
Overall, this was a great recipe to start with. I plan to try out a few more recipes for cheese fondues and see what works best for Buppy and I. I'm really looking forward to trying out a beer-cheese fondue one of these days, but I think I'll have to wait for my next commission check so I can afford some more cheese. [Joking.] And I plan to try out a chocolate one soon too, perhaps for our monthly dinner with our good friends in April. I'll volunteer to make dessert since they're planning on making the full meal for us in our home. Yes, we have awesome friends.
Give this a try and enjoy! And if you happen to have any recipes that'll help me use up mass quantities of kirsch, gimme a holla!
Ah, my 2nd attempt at cheese fondue. I'm pretty much ready to bath myself in this stuff.
All gone!
