Chocolate Sun Fondue

by Christa Upton
(South Dakota)

Recipe 16 in the Solar Hot Pot

Chocolate Sun Fondue

I just had to try it—fondue! Fondue is one thing I like from the 1970s! (smile) Oh, and wild flowered wallpaper, long skirts & sandals, Castile soap, the movie What’s Up Doc?—absolutely hilarious movie!! Um, anyway....

Today we made tomato and sweet pepper quiche in the Solar Hot Pot for lunch (yum!); gave the Hot Pot a quick wash, and now the fondue will go in.

I am so curious to see how long the Hot Pot will keep this warm for us. ‘Course the 5 of us can scarf up chocolate fondue pretty quickly.....

12:45 pm—preheat Solar Hot Pot by setting up facing the sun (with lid on).

1:00 pm—12 oz. chocolate chips, 1/4 c. cream, 1 t butter, 1 t. vanilla or almond extract: put in Hot Pot, cover, set timer for 15 minutes.

Oh, wow—the chocolate started melting almost immediately. (smile)

Prepare dippers, your choice of:

pitted/halved cherries
pieces of banana (not too ripe or they will fall off into the chocolate)
strawberries
chunks of pineapple
pretzels
shortbread cookies and/or biscotti
anything else you like to dip in chocolate

1:15 pm—stir thoroughly. Cover, set timer for 15 minutes.

1:30—stir. If it looks like it could use some more time to be really warm, cover and check every 5 minutes or so.

This turned out fantastic—warm and fudgy!! One of the kids gave it “10 stars” out of 5. LOL Even with the lid off to dip fruit & pretzels, the chocolate stayed warm—almost TOO hot! At the end, we took the Pot out of the reflective panels and set the Pot in the grass, and still the chocolate stayed warm.

This is the first time we’ve brought the Hot Pot with us to a park, and we loved it!! The eggs made a delicious warm lunch (with NO smoke!), and the fondue was such a treat. I want to do it again—Hot Pot at the park, egg dish, fruit, chocolate fondue, and everything! (smile)

In fact, the fondue worked so well and so quickly, I think we could easily make a double batch all at once in the Hot Pot and share with friends. (smile)