Chocolate, cheese — it's all fondue

Knight Ridder News Service

Some ingredients for a heavenly fondue: bananas, strawberries, marshmallows and chocolate. Other dipping foods for this recipe include cubes of cake, butter cookies, brownies, orange sections and pretzels. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser Tools of tradition Pot: Best results from ceramic for cheese, metal for broth or oil; smaller pots desirable for desserts. Cheese and dessert fondue can be made in double boiler then served immediately in pre-heated ceramic bowl. Forks: Long, two- or three-pronged forks with color-coded handles. Bamboo skewers also work (dip skewer ends into poster paint or tie small bows on them). Condiment cups: Small cups or bowls for sauces; diners spoon sauces onto their own plates, then dip. Plates: Individual sectioned plates keep ingredients separate. Optional. Power supply: Three options include fuel burners (refillable fuel wells or Sterno-type canisters), electricity or candles (for pre-heated dessert fondues). Electric pots most controllable, most expensive. — "Fondue: Great Food to Dip, Dunk, Savor and Swirl" by Rick Rodgers

Kirschwasser

• Swiss Cheese Fondue
• 8 ounces dry white wine
• 2 cups Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 2 cups Emmenthaler cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 ounce kirschwasser (a cherry brandy)
• Nutmeg and cracked black peppercorns to taste

Dipping foods:

French, rye and pumpernickel breads, cut into 1-inch cubes; golden delicious apples, sliced into bite-sized cubes (squeeze 1/2 of the lemon into a container of ice water and put sliced apples into it to prevent browning); cleaned and cut fresh vegetables such as celery, carrots, cauliflower

Fill a fondue pot or the bottom of a double boiler with approximately 1 inch of water and turn the burner on low. Your top liner should be large enough to hold all of the ingredients. Pour white wine into the liner.

Combine the two shredded cheeses in a tightly lidded container. Add the flour, seal and shake vigorously, being sure to coat all of the cheese. Set aside.

Turn the burner to high and wait about five minutes or until steam appears. Add in the garlic and squeeze 1/2 of the lemon into the wine base. Using tongs, slowly add the cheese mixture to the wine base, starting with about three tongs, and begin mixing.

Continue adding small amounts of cheese until you achieve the consistency of warm honey.

Add about 3 shakes of nutmeg and 5 turns of fresh cracked peppercorns.

Add the cherry brandy and fold until completely blended. Remove from the burner altogether or turn to low.

Now you're ready to grab the fondue fork, attach foods and dip.

Caution: As cheese gets lower in the liner as you eat, the temperature will become hotter.

This fondue, from "The 125 Best Fondue Recipes," by Ilana Simon (Robert Rose, paper, $18.95), can be made with several varieties of chocolate just by changing the proportion of whipping cream to chocolate. Chop the chocolate or use chocolate chips. With bittersweet chocolate, use 8 ounces chocolate to 1 cup whipping cream. For dark chocolate use 12 ounces chocolate to 3/4 cup whipping cream. For a kid-friendly chocolate fondue, use 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate or chocolate chips to 1/2 cup whipping cream; omit liqueur and add a tablespoon of candy sprinkles just before serving.

Heavenly Chocolate Fondue

• 3/4 cup whipping cream
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 tablespoons Kahlua, amaretto, kirschwasser or other liqueur

In the top of a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water, heat cream until warm. Add chocolate, stirring constantly until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and transfer immediately to fondue pot over candle flame or pre-heated bowl. Stir in liqueur and serve.

Dipping foods include: cubes of dense cake (such as pound cake) or sponge cake, crisp butter cookies, brownies, marshmallows, strawberries, pineapple, cherries, banana chunks, orange sections, pretzels, apple quarters, maraschino cherries. Or pour over little squares of cheesecake.

This is the Melting Pot's kicked-up dessert fondue, popular with families.

Cookies & Cream Marshmallow Dream Chocolate Fondue

• 1 pound sweet gourmet Swiss chocolate
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1 tablespoon marshmallow cream
• 3 Oreo cookies, crushed
• 1 ounce Bacardi 151 rum

Dipping foods:

Pound cake, cheesecake, brownies, beignets; marshmallows, cut in half and rolled in chopped nuts; Strawberries, pineapple, cherries, bananas, mandarin oranges, pretzels, apples, raspberries (Use only perfect, fresh fruits. No frozen fruit allowed. Cheesecake and pound cake should not be dipped with a fondue fork, but chocolate can be poured over them. Cut bananas just before serving to prevent browning.)

Fill the bottom of a fondue pot or double boiler with 1 inch of water.

In a top liner (big enough to hold all chocolate sauce ingredients), pour in milk and turn burner to medium high. Be careful not to let the milk scorch. Break chocolate into small pieces. When milk becomes warm, add in half of the chocolate pieces. Stir continuously. As chocolate mixture thickens, add more of the chocolate until you have reached desired consistency. Turn burner to low. Add marshmallow cream, but do not stir. Just before serving, add the Bacardi rum. Carefully light the chocolate sauce with a long match. While flame is still burning, stir the marshmallow cream to allow it to toast. Garnish with crushed Oreo cookies.