This year, 2016, we celebrate the fiftieth birthday of chocolate fondue. While the origin of cheese fondue and beef fondue is shrouded in history and legend, we know exactly when chocolate fondue was born. The brain child of a publicist for a Swiss chocolate company, the dessert fondue was introduced at a New York press conference, after the owner of the Chalet Swiss restaurant in Manhattan developed the recipe. You’ll find the original chocolate fondue recipe in Final Fondue, the third book of my Five-Ingredient Mystery series.
The following recipe for chocolate fondue doesn’t require any special pots, expertise, or much time, thanks to a device not available in homes of the 1960s—the microwave. Chocolate fondue makes an elegant dessert for a dinner party and an easy after-school snack for children.
Fast Chocolate Fondue
Cut up the fruit and cake before you start making this recipe. With a microwave, the fondue is ready within minutes.
¾ cup heavy cream
12 ounces of semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
1–2 tablespoons cognac, liqueur, or rum [Optional]
Mix the cream and the chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat the cream and chocolate at half-power for 2 minutes, stopping the microwave every 30 seconds to stir the mixture. Whisk in the liqueur.
Pour the chocolate into a small fondue pot on a stand over a lit candle to keep it warm or serve it in an ordinary bowl and reheat if necessary at half-power for 10-20 seconds in the microwave.
Serve with your choice of fresh fruit, dried fruit, angel food or pound cake, ladyfingers, cream puffs, cookies, or marshmallows.
Serves 6. Reheat leftover fondue in the microwave at half-power, stirring every 30 seconds.
About the Book:
Former cookbook publicist Val Deniston lives with her widowed grandfather in a historic town near the Chesapeake Bay. She has her plate full, running a café and helping her grandfather, known as the Codger Cook, prepare for the town’s Tricentennial festivities. Granddad reminisces about the fondue parties of the 1970s and makes chocolate fondue to greet houseguests, weekend visitors to the town’s festival. But after the opening ceremonies, Val finds a guest dead in her grandfather’s backyard. In the dark the murderer might have mistaken the victim for another houseguest or even for Val. Now it’s up to Granddad and Val to keep the killer from making another stab at murder.
Includes the Codger Cook’s Five-Ingredient Recipes!
Praise for the Five-Ingredient Mysteries
“The puzzle solution is deftly handled in this charming cozy debut that is appealingly set on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. With recipes included, this is definitely a starter for fans of Diane Mott Davidson, Lou Jane Temple, and Virginia Rich.” – Library Journal review of By Cook or by Crook
“A good cook makes an even better detective when her grandfather is suspected of murder.” – Kirkus review of Scam Chowder
About the Author:
Maya (Mary Ann) Corrigan lives in Virginia, an easy drive from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the setting for her Five-Ingredient Mysteries: By Cook or by Crook, Scam Chowder, and Final Fondue. The fourth book in the series comes out in 2017. Her novel, The Art of Deceit, won the Daphne du Maurier Award and the New England Readers’ Award for unpublished Mystery/Suspense. She has taught courses in writing, detective fiction, and American literature at Georgetown University and NOVA community college. She loves hearing from readers. Visit her on the Web at mayacorrigan.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mayacorriganbooks/ and www.facebook.com/maryann.corrigan.90.
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