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Chocolate Fondue is a fun, easy dessert idea that comes together in just minutes! Dip strawberries, cookies, pretzels and more into your homemade Chocolate Fondue. Made with only a few ingredients, Chocolate Fondue couldn’t be any easier!
Fondue Chocolate – The perfect easy dessert for any occasion!
I recently asked all of my friends over on Instagram and Facebook what they love to eat for Valentines Day! Besides the comment ‘Everything Chocolate’, one of the most mentioned things was FONDUE!
If you are in the ‘everything chocolate’ bunch, I made some special CARAMEL KISS STUFFED BROWNIES for you last week. Go check them out if you haven’t! They are delicious, pretty sure I ate two whole pans.. by myself.. in two days. 😬
Back to the recipe at hand, after seeing all of the fondue comments I decided that I just needed to DO THE (fon)DUE. And do it in my Instant Pot. (If you’ve been around these parts at all, that shouldn’t surprise you!)
Don’t you fret, if you don’t have an Instant Pot, I’ll include the stovetop directions for you because you matter that much!
Can you make fondue in an instant pot?
The answer to this really depends on your definition of ‘in’. It can definitely be made with your instant pot though! We will be using it as a portable double boiler when making the fondue, so you can do this with either your Instant Pot or on your stovetop.
Fondue Chocolate Recipe ingredients
- Chocolate: this can be chopped high quality chocolate, or just chocolate chips. We don’t discriminate against chocolate over here!
- Heavy whipping cream: this will thin out our chocolate to make it smooth and creamy, perfect for dipping. You can adjust the amount of heavy cream used to make your fondue thinner or thicker.
- Vanilla: just a splash to give it a little depth of flavor.
Best Chocolate for Fondue
Short answer: Whatever chocolate your heart desires. 😉
Long answer: Use whatever chocolate is your absolute favorite! You can use a bar of expensive dipping chocolate, or you can go cheap and use store brand chocolate chips like pictured above.
I personally like a mix of semi-sweet and milk chocolate. If it were up to Dan though, it would be milk chocolate through and through! None of the ‘bitter semi-sweet stuff’. <— Dan’s words. You know just how sweet he is because semi-sweet is too bitter for him! 😉
How to make Chocolate Fondue in the Instant Pot
We will be using my favorite double boiler hack for the Instant Pot to make the Chocolate Fondue.
Essentially, you’ll boil water in the Instant Pot liner, set a glass bowl on top of the Instant Pot and melt your chocolate in the glass bowl.
I used my 3 qt mini to make this, but you could use any size of Instant Pot as long as you have a glass or metal bowl that will fit on top.
Eyeball 1-2 cups of water and pour it into the liner of the Instant Pot. Set the Instant Pot onto Sauté NORMAL. I know you will be tempted to put it on high to speed things up even more, but things will get too hot that way!
Add the chocolate and heavy cream to the bowl. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is smooth.
You can adjust the thickness of your fondue by adding more liquid. The recipe given is for a thicker fondue. If you like yours thinner, either don’t add as much chocolate or add extra cream or milk.
My favorite thing about making Chocolate Fondue in the Instant Pot is the fact that I can put the Instant Pot onto the ‘keep warm’ setting and the fondue will stay warm for as long as I need!!
NOTE: Sometimes with the drastic change in heat the glass bowl will get ‘stuck’ in the metal liner of the Instant Pot once the saute function has been turned off. If this happens, simply turn the saute function back on and within about 3-5 minutes the glass bowl will be loose again. Make sure to handle the glass bowl with hot pads! It will be hot!
How to make Chocolate Fondue on the Stove Top
Making chocolate fondue on the stovetop is actually really easy. All we will use the stovetop for is to scald the heavy cream.
Once you’ve added the heavy cream to your sauce pan, bring it almost to a boil, so it is steaming. Remove from the heat and then pour the steaming cream over the chocolate chips that are in a glass bowl.
Allow everything to sit for 10 minutes and then stir smooth. Add in the vanilla and then serve with fresh fruit, cookies or crackers.
Fondue Chocolate Recipe Tips
- Use your favorite chocolate, the fondue will taste like the chocolate that you use. I, personally, love Guittard Milk Chocolate chips so I tend to use those a lot.
- Don’t overheat the chocolate!
- To thin out your chocolate, add a little extra heavy cream. Do not try adding water, this will cause the chocolate to seize up.
- Cut your dippers into small pieces so you avoid double dipping and to make sure that the dippers don’t break in the chocolate.
Storing Homemade Chocolate Fondue
Homemade chocolate fondue can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days in an airtight container. To reheat the fondue, place it in a heat-safe bowl and microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring between each interval, until it’s heated through. You can also reheat the fondue on the stovetop over low heat, stirring constantly. It’s important to note that reheated chocolate may have a slightly different texture than freshly made chocolate fondue, so it’s best to make only as much as you need for each occasion. If you plan to make a large batch, it’s better to store the chocolate and cream separately and mix them together just before serving. This will ensure that the fondue has the best possible texture and flavor.
What to dip in Easy Chocolate Fondue
ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. 😉 But really, here is a list of some of our favorites.
- strawberries
- bananas
- apples
- nutter butters
- potato chips
- angel food cake
- oreos
- pretzels
- raspberries
- cookies
Store leftover Fondue Chocolate in the fridge. Scoop a little out at a time, warm in the microwave and drizzle on ice cream! *drooling*
Easy Chocolate Fondue Recipe FAQS
Heat your chocolate and heavy cream low and slow. This will help avoid the fondue from separating. Always use heavy cream, do not try to use water.
You’ll want to keep the the fondue warm and at a constant temperature in order to keep it from hardening. Using a fondue pot to keep the fondue warm can help or if you use your Instant Pot, you can keep it on the warm setting to have the same effect.
This is probably because you’ve either added too much liquid or because you’ve overheated the chocolate. If you’ve added too much heavy cream, try stirring in some more chopped chocolate/chocolate chips. If you overheated the chocolate you can try stirring in a little cold heavy cream to bring the fondue back together.
There are a few things you should avoid doing when making fondue- don’t touch the hot pot. I know this one seems obvious, but make sure little hands are also aware that it is hot. Make sure that an adult is supervising the fondue at all times. And definitely, definitely don’t allow people to double dip. Sometimes it is easier to just dish up a small bowl of fondue for each person to enjoy.
Try these other appetizers:
- Fruit Dip
- Chicken Lettuce Wrap
- Grape Jelly Meatballs and Weenies
- Teriyaki Chicken Sliders
- Chicken Salsa Dip
- Cheeseball
- Guacamole
- Pico De Gallo
- Homemade Salsa
- Peanut Butter Apple Dip
- Appetizers
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Easy Chocolate Fondue
Ingredients
- 24 oz chocolate, can be chocolate chips!
- 1 1/2-2 cups heavy cream, (depending on desired thickness)
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- For the Instant Pot: Pour approx 2 cups of water into the bottom of the Instant Pot liner. Place a glass bowl on top of the liner. The bottom of the bowl should just fit inside of the Instant Pot, the top should be above the top of the liner.
- Place the chocolate and heavy cream in the bowl.
- Set the Instant Pot to Saute NORMAL.
- Stir chocolate and cream occasionally until smooth, about 10-15 minutes. After the fondue is smooth, press cancel and then hit the keep warm button.
- Adjust the consistency by adding more cream if desired.
- Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Serve with fresh fruit, cookies or cake.
- For the Stovetop: Scald the cream in a medium sauce pan.
- Place the chocolate chips in a glass bowl.
- Pour the scalded cream on top of the chocolate chips.
- Let the chocolate chips sit for 10 minutes.
- After the 10 minutes are up, stir until smooth.
- Stir in the vanilla.
- Serve with fresh fruit, cookies or cake.
I wonder if this same idea would work for queso blanco?
Are you referencing to using the Instant Pot for queso blanco? If so, it definitely would!!
Just got the same Instant Pot 3Q mini for Christmas and I can’t wait to try your fondue recipe! Do you know the measurements of the glass bowl that you placed inside / on top of the Instant pot?
Any glass bowl that fits inside but is still taller than the liner will work. 🙂
Should the bottom of the glass bowl be touching the water at the bottom of the instant pot?
No, there should be space in between the water and the bottom of the bowl.