Easy Family Fondue Dessert Party & Recipe

Easy Family Fondue Dessert Party & Recipe

Last week, my girlfriend Nicole came to visit me in my new city of Denver, Colorado. My family and I relocated from Charlotte, North Carolina to Denver 3 short weeks ago, and nothing was more welcome than seeing her familiar face in a sea of new ones. In an effort to catch up, Nicole and I left the kids with my husband and headed to a nearby bistro for happy hour, dinner, and dessert!

Nicole ordered chocolate fondue for dessert, and when the platter arrived grouped with colorful blocks of fresh strawberries, green apples, bananas, pound cake, brownies, and marshmallows with a pot of chocolate in the center and silver skewers strewn around, it brought smiles to our faces! It looked like fun on a plate. 

I had almost forgotten what fondue looked like. The last time I had it was in college when my 3 sisters, who knew I loved entertaining, bought me a fondue set for my apartment. It occurred to me that if this type of dessert could bring so much excitement to me as a thirty-something-year-old adult, just think of what it would do for a toddler!

Much like adults, kids eat with their eyes first, and they too can appreciate a nice presentation of colorful foods on a platter. Kids love getting involved with their food, giving things a good “dip”. And for better or for worse, you just know they’re going to have a hay-day using those skewers!

The next day, I decided to surprise my family with a fondue dessert party on Tuesday night. I announced that anyone who ate a good dinner (subjectivity allowed) could look forward to an exciting dessert party. Everyone—including our sometimes finicky toddler—polished off their dinner.

For me, any night I can get a nutritious meal on the table is a feat. The thought of also making dessert never usually enters my mind, so I needed a fondue recipe that I could make in 5-10 minutes or less; something as simple as chopping fresh fruit and melting some chocolate chips in the microwave. Below is a simple chocolate fondue recipe that is even perfect for a weeknight. If you try it on your family, I hope you all have as much fun eating it as we did!

Even our 9-month-old baby, Armin, participated in our dessert party. He enjoyed tiny bites of the fresh fruit (sans chocolate) while dancing in his highchair!

Easy Chocolate Fondue Recipe:

Age: 12 months plus
Yield: approximately ½ cup chocolate fondue sauce
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 minute
Food storage: best served immediately

  • ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ¼ cup skim milk
  • Strawberries, bananas, apples, cantaloupe, mandarin oranges, pineapples, brownies, marshmallows, pound cake, or any other dipping item of your choice

Place the chocolate chips and milk in a small, microwavable bowl. Microwave for about 1 minute. (Take care not to microwave much longer or the chocolate will burn.) Briskly stir the chocolate until melted and smooth.

Serve the chocolate dipping sauce in a small bowl with fresh fruit and other accompaniments of choice around it. Use skewers, chopsticks, toothpicks, or a fork to “poke” the fresh fruit and “dip” it in the chocolate sauce. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post, sign up to receive our newsletter for other great ideas on feeding your baby, toddler, and family. Look out for our upcoming cookbook What a Good Eater! for baby & toddler recipes with healthy herbs and spices to add flavor and broaden your baby’s palette, expected April 2016.

About Amy Godiwalla

Amy Godiwalla is co-author of the What a Good Eater! cookbook, available on Amazon. Amy and her husband, Shaun, live in Denver, Colorado, with their two little boys. When Amy is not feeding little mouths or inventing recipes, she enjoys hiking, yoga, snowboarding, cooking, entertaining, traveling to the mountains, sipping hot chocolate at ski resorts, and wine tasting.

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