Why, I Don't Mind If I Fondue!

I had a girls' night to go to last night and we were asked to bring something to share. I like to try to come up with fun and different things to take instead of always doing the same old stuff. So I thought, hmmm... what's better for a girls' night party than a vat of melted chocolate? I couldn't think of anything better either. 

The decision was made... fondue it would be.

I looked up a few recipes for basic fondue, seeing as I've never really made it before AND I was doing it in a CrockPot instead of an actual fondue pot. So the recipes were all similar: chocolate, some sort of canned milk and vanilla. Booooooorrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnggggg!!

So I took those basic ideas and made it my own...

Here's what I did:

• 2 bags of semisweet chocolate chips. (most recipes called for chopped up semi-sweet chocolate. I'm sure you can use the Baker's chocolate, but why waste time chopping when Nestle/Hersheys/Ghirardelli has already done the work for you?)
• 1/2 - 1 bag of milk chocolate chips
• 1 can evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed!)
• 1/3 c. powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup Kahlua
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

My CrockPot is 4 quarts but you could do this in a 3 quart pot and be just fine. It doesn't look like it makes ALL that much, but it does... and it's great for breakfast the next day: cold and spread over leftover macaroons (which I'll get to in a second).

Dump the chocolate into the pot... all of it. Pour about 3/4 of the can of evaporated milk over the chips. Pour the remaining 1/4 of the milk into a microwave safe bowl and heat it up a bit. Dissolved the powdered sugar into the warmed evaporated milk and pour over the chips as well. 

Turn the CrockPot on low for about an hour. 

Stir the mixture and add the Kahlua and vanilla - stir it again to get it mixed in. I used a whisk because I felt like it helped get it smoother. Then let it sit on low until the chocolate is completely melted. If it starts to bubble, turn the CrockPot to "Keep Warm" - if you don't have a keep warm setting, then I don't know what to tell you. My Low setting will burn the chocolate after about an hour.

Go ahead an serve it whenever the chocolate is all melted. I used dippers like strawberries, bananas, pound cake (thanks to a certain Kim Underwood) and homemade macaroons (which are super easy to make!)

Coconut Macaroons

I wanted to take something to dip that was a little out of the ordinary so I thought macaroons would be good. Again, they were so easy!

Here's what I did:

• 1 1/3 c. flaked coconut
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 Tbsp flour
• a pinch of salt
• 2 egg whites (whisked)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine the coconut, sugar, flour and salt. Then add the egg whites and vanilla. Mix well.

Drop them onto parchment by small teaspoons (if you're using them as dippers) so they're about as wide around as a quarter. Bake them for about 15 minutes on 325.

Because you're dipping them, you don't want to make them very big so you can get a nice bite-sized amount. I got about 2 dozen from this recipe which was a good amount since there were so many other dipping options.