I’m making a chocolate fondue for a dinner next week, and was wondering if anybody has any ideas for great dippers. So far, I’m thinking:
quartered strawberries;
toasted poundcake;
meringues;
banana pieces; and,
marshmallows.
Who has a brilliant idea to include?
Any kind of fruit goes well with chocolate… try candied citrus fruits.
Robin
A good white bread: baguette or Italian. It’s phenominal with chocolate, and after all the sweet-sweet, it makes a nice balance.
Also hazelnuts (sometimes called filberts) and pecans.
I’d suggest not cutting up the strawberries, just eat 'em whole.
You could always try french fries.
Sliced apple. It provides a good contrast to the gooey chocolate. Soak the slices in dilute lemon juice before hand to stop them discolouring.
How do you get nuts to stay on the little fondue forks, WhyNot? I can easily put out some white bread for palate cleansing. I’ll have it for my spinach-artichoke dip appetizer, anyway.
I’m thinking of cutting up the strawberries because I can’t get very nice ones this time of year. If I quarter and take out the bad spots, it’s much less obvious than digging them out of a whole strawberry. Do you think I should skip the berries?
Speaking of fruit, would kiwi be good? Or on another note, crystalized ginger?
I was right about to suggest the candied ginger. I’ve had that in chocolate fondue and it was to die for.
Pretzels - the bigger stick kind. Just stick 'em in.
In a related note, those Piroline thingies - the cylinders of delicate cookie that’s rolled around a filling (generally hazelnut, tho’ there’s others). Again, just dip 'em in.
Most of the recipes that I have found say you can add liquer to the chocolate. Would Grand Marnier be a good one that should go with most of the above dippers?
Also, for a group of four, how many different dippers should I include?
The only problem with those is that if I open a box, they will be gone before I can even melt the chocolate. Best. Cookies. Ever.
Grand Marnier, or a good liquer like a raspberry or loganberry is nice
Hazelnuts are a little tough, but they’re one of the softer nuts, and a sharp fondue fork will hold them. Or, you can set it on the fork and chase it across the surface of the chocolate like a hockey puck. Pecans, I usually shove the tines between the little ribs on the back. Fondue is messy, it’s part of it’s charm. And chunk and dip the bread, too! Chocolate covered bread is a thing not to be missed. Trust me on this one. It’s the most valuable thing I learned in 6 years of French class.
poundcake and angel food cake. shortbread. graham crackers.
I may be the only person on earth who thinks this - but while I like fruit and I like chocolate, fruit and chocolate together tastes horrid to me.
Btw, this is an awesome fondue. Highly recommend it.
-Pineapple chunks.
-Diced pear.
-Hawaiian bread.
-Maraschino Cherries
But I must point out, you’re missing half the fun by not doing a cheese fondue as well.
Some would argue that a hot-oil fondue for shrimp/steak/lamb/chicken is good too, but I’ve found that it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
Additionally, if you’ve never done fondue before, you’ll sometimes find it difficult to control the heat just right so your chocolate (or cheese) doesn’t boil or burn. The more items that get dipped in rapid succession, the quicker your product will cool. So keep a sharp eye on the flame.
Nilla Wafers are good, too – the fork doesn’t work so well for them, but you can just dunk them. I have little use for Nilla Wafers if they aren’t covered in chocolate. 
Thanks for the tip, GrizzRich. This is my first chocolate fondue, but I had a cheese and oil fondue party for New Year’s Day. The Sterno almost took my eyebrows off! I’m trying out a few new recipes for the dinner that I’m excited about, so the chocolate is the only fondue on the block this time.
For a nice mixture of textures and flavors, based on everyone’s input, my current thoughts are:
Grand Marnier flavored chocolate
The stick pretzels (salty)
Ginger cubes (spicy)
Angel food cake (cakey)
White bread (because it comes so highly recommended)
Three kinds of fruit, depending on what looks decent at the store, with strawberries of course taking the highest priority
Thanks, all!
The last fondue I made was most excellent. Just milk chocolate melted with cream, with a handful of large marshmallows melted in to thicken it up. To that, we added a generous dash of almond extract. MMM. We dipped angel food cake cubes, bananas, strawberries, and Nilla wafers.
An idea for presentation, get a small amount of good white chocolate, break into small chunks and add at the last minute give a little stur to make a marbelled effect. Maybe a sprig of mint leaves on each persons plate.
Exotic tastes that go with chocolate include cardomom(sp?), rosemary, peppercorns. I would be tempted to experiment with fresh basil leaves dipped in chocolate.
Raspberries. Canned Mandarin oranges.