The blue flames from the sterno lick the pot as heat rises with the smell of chocolate in the air. Bright red strawberries and perfectly ripe bananas get dunked into the molten liquid and emerge coated in rich, shiny chocolate.
Every Christmas Eve, my family has a fondue night. Fondue is a communal dish of melted cheese, broth, or chocolate, into which you dip various foods. It is a popular Christmas tradition that originated in Switzerland.
My family used to do both cheese and chocolate fondue on Christmas Eve. We melted Swiss cheese and dipped it in apples, ham, and bread. However, my siblings and I never really liked the cheese fondue. Now, we stick to a meal of steak and baked potatoes, and leave the fondue for dessert.
About a week before Christmas Eve, my dad heads to Whole Foods to buy high-quality dark chocolate melts. And when I say dark I mean DARK. This stuff is 70% cacao and very bitter if eaten alone. Even so, my dad has to hide the chocolate melts and cover them with a Post-It saying “do not eat,” because my siblings and I will consume anything in the house that looks like candy.
After cleaning up from Christmas Eve dinner, my dad gets started on the fondue. He melts the chocolates in a pot with half-and-half and some heavy whipping cream, making it less bitter. As he stirs the pot, my siblings and I cut up strawberries and bananas to eat with it. On more than one occasion, we have come to the realization that we don’t have enough fruits, and my siblings and I ran to the local grocery store to pick up more.
Once the chocolate is melted, my dad pours it into our fondue pot, a fancy contraption designed exactly for this dish. The chocolate goes in a ceramic pot suspended above a heating base. The base uses canned heat, a jelly-like substance that you light with a match. It burns for a long time, keeping the chocolate warm and in liquid form.
We then break out the super-long fondue forks. We have at least 15 of them, which is perfect because there are exactly five people in our family, and we only use them once a year. We prepare the cut strawberries and bananas on a plate, along with shortbread cookies and giant marshmallows. After setting everything up on the dining table, we begin the dipping.
The best part about fondue is the colors. The red of the strawberries with the dark, rich chocolate just screams Christmas. My sister is the resident family photographer. She makes sure to snap some photos before we’re allowed to start eating. It’s just so Instagrammable.
Once we start digging in, the flavor is divine. The coldness and acidity of the fruits is the perfect match to the warmth and sweetness of the chocolate. But my favorite is the shortbread cookies. I adore anything that tastes like straight butter and sugar, which is pretty much all that’s in shortbread. As we eat, we laugh about getting chocolate all over our faces and struggling to pick up the banana slices that slip off our forks and get lost in the sauce. We reach over each other, fighting for access to the pot of chocolate. Although it’s not the fanciest thing, we always use paper plates for easy disposal, because it’s just so messy.
Chocolate fondue is one of my favorite Christmas traditions, mostly because I love chocolate, but also because of the time I get to spend with my family members. I look forward to it every year as part of what makes the holidays special.