Recipe: Fondue for Two
by Ruth Ann Smalley
Maybe it was all the reading I’d been doing about the Danish concept of cozy conviviality or “hygge,” combined with the prospect of a cold, stressful winter looming. Or maybe it was a bit of an impulse buy ahead of gifting season. Whatever my motives, I’m happy to have brought home a Kikkerland Fondue for Two set after it caught my eye last fall in Honest Weight’s cheese department.
My family inaugurated it over the holidays, along with a petite Swissmar Tandem Fondue and Raclette set. We are now hooked on the whole tealight-powered process—ritual, in fact—of melting delicious foods at the table. We light a couple of extra taper candles for atmosphere, assemble our snacks, and settle in for a slower pace of eating. And if a winter storm hits and we lose power, at least we can still fondue!
The Kikkerland set is basically designed like an oversized, rectangular mug, with an open chamber in the base for your tealight (tealight not included). It comes with two stainless steel fondue forks with wooden handles. And that’s it. The simplicity is part of the charm.
When I checked out reviews, I saw a few disgruntled folks who couldn’t get their tealight to stay lit. It does take a little fussing! Here’s what I found by trial and error: don’t use a brand new tea light with a long wick. Try one that has burned down a bit, make sure the wick is trimmed, and light it outside the mug. Let the flame establish good contact with the wax, and then slip it as close to the chamber opening as possible, so it gets good airflow.
We melt the chocolate right in the mug, and then dip mini twist pretzels and home-made shortbread. Clementine pieces are also tasty with chocolate, and of course, I foresee dipping strawberries around Valentine’s day. It actually holds a good amount of chocolate, so make it fondue for four if you don’t want to gorge yourself.
Here’s how to make the proper volume of chocolate fondue to fit in the mug:
Place 4 ounces of dark chocolate chips in the top of the mug, and pour ⅓ cup of heavy cream over them. Light your properly aged tealight and slide it into the heating chamber. Stir gently until chips are thoroughly melted and blended.
This is slow food—take a breath and be ready to enjoy stirring the pot for several minutes. If you have children, they might enjoy timing it as a science experiment. You need to keep stirring occasionally, and you may wish to add more heavy cream, based on the consistency as you keep dipping.
And here’s a recipe for a rustic, gluten-free Scottish Petticoat Shortbread:
Ingredients
¼ teaspoon salt
4 ounces of unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 ⅓ cup flour Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour
Directions
Mix the salt and sugar roughly into the butter–it does not need to be creamed.
Add the gluten-free flour. Work it thoroughly into the butter and sugar mix, until you can form it into two balls of dough.
Shape these into a 7 inch circle. I just press them as evenly as possible into a pie pan, leaving a little space around the edge to make them easier to lift out after baking.
Use a fork to crimp the outer edges, pie-crust style, and then prick all over the dough. Using a knife, cut into 8 slices.
Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, until the edges begin to turn golden brown. Allow to cool before separating from the pan.
Happy fondue-ing!
View all the Coop Scoop Blog posts here.